Chennai: A finance influencer with over 1.3 million followers on Instagram has died by suicide in Chennai, and his father has alleged he was cyberbullied by the CEO of a venture studio.
V. Harish, 27, who ran the popular social media brand ‘Finance With Harish’ on Instagram and YouTube, was found hanging at his rented villa in Chennai.
Father’s Allegations
His father claims he was “targeted” by Jason Samuel, CEO of venture studio Zemuria Inc. According to the family, Harish’s Instagram handle was disabled by Meta following Samuel’s allegations, and he had been releasing videos on a new handle. The influencer was stressed because of this, which drove him to take his own life, his father said, while also demanding a police investigation.
Samuel Denies Cyberbullying
In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Samuel said he was shocked by Harish’s death, but emphasised that he had only pointed out that the influencer had “misrepresented” facts.
“I am deeply saddened, heavily grieving, shocked and frozen at what has happened and I mourn the loss of life. I have not cyber-bullied him. I pointed out his lack of licence and authority, misrepresentation of licence and fraud on SEBI and AMFI where he has not got SEBI RIA for his work and misrepresented that he had an AMFI license when he got the ARN only recently. i.e., his illegal activity,” Samuel wrote.
“I literally asked him in the video to come back and do this with a proper SEBI licence. I never intended or expected this drastic measure to happen and I mourn the loss,” he added.
Samuel claimed Harish was not a SEBI Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) and had obtained his AMFI Registration Number (ARN) from the Association of Mutual Funds in India only recently.
Investigation Status
The police are yet to register a case in connection with the death.
