Mike and His Banana: Adelaide OnlyFans star Mike Sanchez reveals how X-rated Moana mansion photoshoot landed him in jail

The rising star has revealed how badly things went wrong for him after he was caught in a media storm over a spicy photoshoot in a Moana mansion.

Four years ago, Mike Sanchez made headlines as the OnlyFans star who was booted from a Moana mansion after staging a raunchy photoshoot with other creators from the adults-only subscription service.

Unluckily for him, the incident didn’t just attract media attention – it also caught the eye of his unimpressed parole officers.

A few days after appearing in The Advertiser and on TV news, the budding OnlyFans entrepreneur – who was on parole at the time for drug crimes committed years earlier – was arrested at his North Plympton home and thrown back behind bars for breaching his good behaviour bond.

“It was really, really gut-wrenching,” says Sanchez, whose Mike and His Banana platform became a hit on OnlyFans before his arrest.

“Most people when they deal with any breach of parole, they very rarely – unless it’s a serious crime – have their parole cancelled. When I went to see the board, they cancelled my parole for my first and only ever breach.

“The condition of my parole that I breached was to be ‘of good behaviour’. It’s very vague and subjective ... I wouldn’t have done the photoshoot if I knew it would have been a breach and I wouldn’t have been on TV.”

Mike Sanchez is back in business with his OnlyFans agency, Xentrik. Picture: Dean Martin

Today, after spending another 14 months in jail and then keeping his OnlyFans business dormant while he served out the remaining 18 months of his parole period, Sanchez is finally back in business – and says he’s raking in a six-figure monthly salary.

He has 25 employees based in the Philippines and Australia and claims his resurrected OnlyFans agency, Xentrik Marketing, manages the accounts of 20 models, with some also making more than six-figure incomes a month.

His models include several transwomen and a mother-of-three from Queensland with more than 100,000 followers on OnlyFans and the more extreme Fansly.

She signed with Xentrik Marketing in September and credits Sanchez with taking care of the time-consuming marketing and sales work that has freed her up to spend more time with her children aged four, two and 15 months.

“It’s just all taken care of and I just have to make content and not worry about anything else,” says the 30-year-old, who joined OnlyFans in 2017 and went “viral” after posting content while she was pregnant.

“It’s hard to stay on top of everything – work, my fitness, my family. After a while, my numbers started to drop off a bit.

“(Joining the agency) has made a difference for me big time. I’m not having to put in that time and effort but I’m making the same amount of money that I used to when I was at my peak.”

Mike Sanchez says he’s making a six-figure salary every month. Picture: Dean Martin

Sanchez, who uses a nom de plume in his business life, has taken a colourful path to OnlyFans success.

Fresh out of Reynella East High School, a teenage Sanchez fell into a downward spiral that ended with him selling ecstasy to fuel a growing drug habit. He was arrested with 20 pills in 2013 and given a suspended 2½-year jail sentence.

“I got a slap on the wrist but unfortunately I didn’t learn my lesson and fell back into it and started dealing bigger amounts,” he says.

When he was caught dealing a second time with 200 pills the courts were not so lenient and he was sentenced to another 3½ years in prison, taking his head sentence to six years with a 2½-year non-parole period.

The then-23-year-old served time in high security at Yatala – where he met Snowtown serial killer John Bunting – before being moved to medium security at Mobilong.

He was released on home detention in September 2019 and lived with his father at Para Vista.

An ex-girlfriend inspired Sanchez with her new $2000-a-week OnlyFans pay packet. The subscription service was reaching its peak in popularity, with everyday Aussies sharing stories of overnight fortunes with their own sites.

Sanchez wanted in – and Mike And His Banana was born.

Mike Sanchez in his “pimped-out” bedroom at his dad’s Para Vista with his home detention electronic anklet. Picture: Nexus Inc Photography

“It was my idea to use the banana. I was like ‘everyone’s using their own name or a fake name, why is no one having fun with this?’,” says the heterosexual Sanchez, who pitched his account to appeal to gay customers.

“Clients knew I wasn’t a gay guy but a lot of them really liked it, they were like ‘we’re going to turn this guy’.

“I was working out of my bedroom at my dad’s house, which was pimped out with neon lights and banana posters. My entire bedroom just became completely bananas. I was still on home detention at this time and you could see my (electronic) ankle bracelet.”

In April 2020, he was making $1000 a month. By January 2021, he says that had ballooned to $30,000 a month.

His site was so successful, other creators came knocking on Sanchez’s door for tips on how to amplify their business. From there, Sanchez set up his OnlyFans agency, taking a commission to help others build their accounts.

Adelaide’s Mike Sanchez says he is making six-figure incomes a month with his OnlyFans agency. Picture: Getty Images

“I was working pretty much all day, every day, 16 hours a day,” he says.

“Things were going really well and maybe I was on track to become a millionaire, who knows?”

But then Sanchez took his ill-fated trip to the Moana AirBnB to shoot some more content – and his OnlyFans career came to a grinding halt.

“At the time, I was four years drug and alcohol-free – right now I’m seven years drug and alcohol-free – and I wasn’t there partying. Yes other people were drinking but I was only there for work purposes,” he says.

Days later, as he sat at his computer working on his skyrocketing agency, police officers knocked on the door of his North Plympton rental and arrested him for not being “transparent” about his work with OnlyFans or his use of an alias. His parole was revoked and he was taken to the city watchouse.

“I had no clue it was going to happen, I was gutted,” says the 31-year-old.

But he’s philosophical about serving his extra time.

“At the end of the day, parole is a privilege not a right so you’ve got to do what they say. I made my bed – I committed the crimes initially to put myself in those circumstances so I can’t be angry at it,” says Sanchez, who worked in solar energy sales while he served out the rest of his parole period.

“Who knows, maybe I would have been better off, I might have been a millionaire, I think it’s very likely given the trajectory that I was going, especially in 2021. However, it means if and when I do achieve that I’m going to be all the more appreciative that I got there.”

Sanchez has a host of tattoos that pay tribute to his dramatic journey.

Mike Sanchez’s wrist tattoo with his prison number.

He has an OnlyFans symbol on his ankle, a banana on his other ankle, his prison number on his wrist, which he inked on the day he was 2500 days alcohol-free, and and on his forearm, written in flowery calligraphy, is the word “integrity”.

“I got that after I got out the first time to remind myself to be an honest person, live an honest life, not lie to others but also not lie to myself about my own values,” says Sanchez, who studied more than 200 books while he was in jail, including How To Win Friends And Influence People and The Obstacle Is The Way.

“If I was to go back to that lifestyle again, I’d be lying to myself.”

Mike Sanchez has an ambigram on his chest that reads the words “adversity” and “advantage”. Picture: Instagram

Across his chest is a large tattoo that spells out “adversity”. It’s a nod to his chequered history as a drug dealer, the years he’s spent behind bars and the setback he endured just as his OnlyFans business was hitting its heights.

But the tattoo is an ambigram. From his perspective, as he looks down, the image is transformed into the word “advantage”.

“Definitely at the time it was pretty frustrating but now looking back it’s like most hardship you go through, it ends up being a turning point of some kind,” says Sanchez.

“I’m grateful I did get to go back in to prison because I wouldn’t be in the position I am here today. It humbled me a little bit and it taught me a hell of a lot more, to be a bit more cautious and when you think you’re doing well you can still lose it all in an instant.”