Instagram posts by rich kids have led to more incriminating evidence for prosecutors about their parents' fraud schemes.
Leading cybersecurity firms told The Guardian they have been using social media evidence to nail fraud and assets in up to 75% of their cases.
Andrew Beckett, managing director of cybersecurity and investigations at Kroll, explained that firms have been monitoring billionaires', oligarchs', and super rich investors' (unnamed) children's Instagram accounts because oftentimes they geo-tag their extravagant posts, allowing authorities to investigate where exactly their parents are spending their money.
Another cybersecurity expert explained that his firm recently was able to seize a "newly acquired private jet" from a fraudster, because his son posted a picture of him and his father in front of the jet to Instagram.
Similarly, K2 Intelligence in London solved a recovery asset case when a man who claimed to have no significant valuables let his children post pictures on their $25 million yacht in the Bahamas.
Even if a possibly incriminating photo is not geotagged, Daniel Hall, director of global judgment enforcement at Burford Capital, explained that experts are able to use the metadata of the Instagram to find out where it was posted - or use a Facebook like for the same reason.
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"You can start building up a profile of that individual: where they are; what their interests are; who are they regularly in touch with," he added.
And it's not just the overindulged progeny of the 1%. 50 Cent got in trouble for the exact same reason after he posted the below photo of himself with $100 bills spelling out "BROKE" just a few months after he declared bankruptcy.
He was supposedly forced to explain the circumstances of the photo (he said the bills were fake) in court.
