How investors are making big bucks off bad boy bikie Toby Mitchell’s social media following
Toby Mitchell’s bad boy online image has helped local investors land big deals with major Aussie retailers. Here’s how a former bikie became an influencer.
Victoria
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A rag-tag team of suburban investors are set to reap financial windfalls from lucrative deals to have a fruity energy drink and an imported vodka stocked at Woolworths and Coles owned outlets after enlisting notorious criminal Toby Mitchell to front their marketing efforts.
Mitchell, 47, a former Mongols and Bandidos bikie boss has served jail time for drug offences, has been the victim of an underworld shooting, and is currently serving a good behaviour bond for assaulting a drunken “pest” who showed up to his birthday party uninvited.
The former kickboxer and tattoo parlour owner has also previously been accused of threatening to kill a baby girl in a $300,000 extortion attempt, but prosecutors dropped those charges before trial.
In recent years Mitchell, a former kickboxer, has become a social media sensation, amassing nearly 400,000 Instagram followers and posting incessantly about his lavish lifestyle, his penchant for designer clothing and his frequent dinners at high end restaurants.
He has also frequently used his page to spruik a $3.70 energy drink, MTVUP! and an imported French vodka, Mont Blanc.
Both products are imported into Australia by a St Kilda drinks wholesaler, who the Sunday Herald Sun has been told entered into a commercial arrangement with Mitchell to have him spruik the products.
Neither the wholesaler nor Mitchell would comment on the details of the promotional arrangement.
The energy drink is now stocked at Coles Express outlets, while Woolworths-owned Dan Murphys recently agreed to stock the vodka.
The investors in the wholesaler include a rising young Caulfield real estate agent, a glamorous mumprener, and a St Kilda psychotherapist who specialises in “the mystical wisdom of Kabbalah”.
All seem reluctant to discuss the wholesaler’s business relationship with Mitchell.
The two directors of the drinks wholesaler are businessmen Shimon Wahnich, 40 of Bentleigh East, and Moshe Menahem, 50, of Balaclava, both of whom also hold stakes in the company. They did not respond to the Sunday Herald Sun’s inquiries.
Mr Menahem and his son, Buxton real estate agent Tai Menahem, 23, have the largest combined stake in the drinks company.
When asked on Friday how he felt about owning a stake in a company fronted a renowned gangster, Tai Menahem abruptly hung up the phone.
Another major investor, St Kilda psychotherapist Ronnie Adamowicz, 45, told the Herald Sun he was a “silent partner” in the drinks wholesaler.
Mr Adamowicz said he was aware of a “deal” Mitchell had to market both the vodka and the energy drink, but said he played no part in the brands’ marketing strategies.
The other, smaller investors are glamorous mum-of-three entrepreneur Esther Partouche, also known as Esther Ben David, 27, of Elsternwick, kebab shop owner Jeremy Barrington, 62, of Hampton East, and Michael Clarence Williams, 53, of Camberwell, none of whom responded to the Sunday Herald Sun’s inquiries.
Originally published as How investors are making big bucks off bad boy bikie Toby Mitchell’s social media following
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