The brother of French footballer Paul Pogba has been charged and detained over an alleged plot to extort money from his superstar sibling.
Mathias Pogba was arrested while four other people thought to be his accomplices were placed under formal investigation for extortion and criminal association.
Mathias' lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, said his client is innocent. He told French broadcaster BFMTV: 'We are going to challenge this decision.'
Earlier this month the Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial probe into allegations by the Juventus and former Manchester United midfielder Paul that he was the target of extortion attempts and threats from an organised gang.
The 29-year-old World Cup winner told the prosecutors that he had been the target of extortion by childhood friends since March and had paid £85,000 (€100,000) to that group in the spring, judicial sources told Reuters.
Franceinfo radio claimed that the group demanded £11million (€13m) from the French midfielder for 'protection services' stretching back 13 years.
Paul Pogba claims the gang has been hassling him for months, intimidating him with threats of violence, flashing automatic weapons and claiming they would release intimate details of his life to the public if he chose not to pay.
The extraordinary saga supposedly began in March, when Mathias and his accomplices are accused of taking the footballer to a flat in the Paris suburb of Lagny-sur-Marne and declared that he should give them financial aid due to his status as an internationally renowned player.
'Acts of intimidation' were carried out in Manchester in April and later around the Italian city of Turin, where Paul Pogba plays for Juventus, it is alleged.
Mathias, 32, who is also a football player with spells in lower league British football, then released a video on social media in August in which he vowed to make a series of 'great revelations' about the World Cup winner.
'The French, English, Italian and Spanish public, as well as my brother's fans — and even more so the French team and Juventus, my brother's teammates and his sponsors — deserve to know certain things,' Mathias said.
'In order to make an informed decision if he deserves the admiration, respect and love of the public.
'Whether he deserves his place in the French team and the honour of playing in the World Cup. If he deserves to be a starter at Juventus.
'If he is a trustworthy person, that any player would want to have at his side.'
Soon after the post was made, the Juventus midfielder released a statement - signed by his lawyers, his mother Yeo Moriba and current agent Rafaela Pimenta - admitting that Mathias' videos were 'unfortunately no surprise'.
The statement read: '[The videos] are in addition to threats and extortion attempts by an organised gang against Paul Pogba.'
'The relevant bodies in Italy and France were informed a month ago and there will be no further comments in relation to the ongoing investigation.'
One wild claim made by Matthias was that his brother had used a witch doctor to cast a spell on 23-year-old French forward Kylian Mbappe.
The Juventus star strenuously denied the allegations, saying he had sought the help of a witch doctor but only for the purpose of warding off injuries.
'All of Paul's statements, from the hearing at the start of August – before my videos – to the response from his lawyers and the responses, from his supporters, are only intended to drag my name through the mud,' Mathias Pogba said in his latest TikTok video.
'So I'm asking myself: why rush to affirm that what I had to say concerned just witchcraft?
'Because it would be difficult to talk about the so-called blackmail in this case? So wouldn't it be better to hammer home that the big brother is just a jealous, money-grabbing person, ready to do anything to discredit before he speaks? Isn't that what all false accounts in my name are all about? No, we don't accept conspiracies here!'
Mbappe meanwhile sided with teammate Paul.
'I prefer to believe the word of my team-mate,' Mbappe said.
'It is his word against the word of his brother, I am going to believe my team-mate.
'It's not a time to put more onto him. I'm pretty detached from it all.'