Achraf Hakimi: The incredible fake news about his divorce
Achraf Hakimi and his wife, Hiba Abrouk, who are currently going through a divorce, have been the center of a fake news story for several days.
This story has gained so much traction that it has reached hundreds of millions of people around the world, with the PSG player as the main character. The story claims that Hakimi organized his finances in such a way that he declared all of his assets and fortune in his mother’s name, in order to avoid having to give anything to his future ex-wife.
A star couple featuring a football player and an actress, whose romance turned into a separation with a fortune and assets to dispute: all the ingredients were there for an explosive mix. And unsurprisingly, it caught on.
It caught on too well, in fact. To the point where media outlets such as Goal, Marca, 20 Minutes Switzerland, and even personalities like Francis Ngannou fell into into the trap of the fake news surrounding Achraf Hakimi’s divorce.
While it is true that the Moroccan international and his partner Hiba Abrouk are indeed going through a divorce, the story about the financial demands of the mother of the player’s children is entirely fabricated.
Social media pages are the origin of this fakenews
However, the story has reached hundreds of millions of people around the world and continues to spread.
At the origin of the story was information that appeared on social media, indicating that Hiba Abouk had demanded half of Achraf Hakimi’s assets and fortune as part of their divorce proceedings. But to her surprise, she allegedly learned that her future ex-husband actually owned no assets or money in his name, as all of his assets were in his mother’s name.
As a result, she would not be entitled to anything from him. It didn’t take much for the internet to ignite around this « news », with the vast majority applauding « visionary » Hakimi for his apparent foresight in protecting his assets from his greedy future ex-wife. This theme provided ample opportunity for men’s rights activists to attack the actress.
Behind the fake news surrounding Hakimi’s divorce were actually three social media accounts: First Mag, Daily Loud, and News 24/7.
first was presented as a French magazine by the media outlets that fell for the hoax, but it is actually a page based in Côte d’Ivoire that is particularly active on Facebook and Twitter.
The second, specializing in music and hip-hop in particular, is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The last one, on the other hand, has a changing location. Sometimes it claims to be in Uganda, and other times in Greece, according to Sport News Africa’s observations after consulting the account over several days.
These various social media pages are verified on Twitter. That helped to give weight and credibility to this information.
How could someone notice that it’s was a fake news?
By many means, especially the fact that this “strategy “that the Moroccan used is impossible as far as the French legislation is concerned.
The most ardent supporters of the fake news even went further to definitively close any debate on the subject and disprove the argument that Hakimi could have indeed transferred his fortune to his mother. This was done by relying on some European legal rules, starting with French law, which directly concerns the Moroccan international.
As an employee of Paris Saint-Germain, he receives his salary and other bonuses in France and therefore must have a bank account in his name, as required by French law. However, he can add the name of his mother or another person as a joint holder of this account, but his name will still appear on the account and he will be designated as the owner.
This de facto undermines the argument that all of his fortune is in his mother’s name and that he has arranged everything to avoid having to declare anything.
Nel
