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Why influencer Kevin Thobias remains in his luxury Las Palmas mansion after authorities imposed asset forfeiture
🇨🇴 Colombia /Crime & Justice

Why influencer Kevin Thobias remains in his luxury Las Palmas mansion after authorities imposed asset forfeiture

From El Tiempo · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement In the courts
  • Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office imposed an asset-forfeiture measure on several properties linked to American influencer and businessman Kevin Alexander Thobias in Medellín.
  • Thobias remains at his Las Palmas mansion and posted videos from the property after officials visited to enforce the measure.
  • U.S. authorities accuse him of bank fraud, conspiracy and money laundering linked to a supplement-selling scheme on Amazon, while Colombian authorities examine assets connected to the case.

Kevin Alexander Thobias continued posting from his luxury mansion in Medellín’s Las Palmas neighborhood after Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office visited the property to impose an asset-forfeiture measure.

The measure, legalized on Aug. 28, covers about a dozen properties belonging to the American businessman. It follows an active case involving alleged electronic fraud and money laundering, charges for which Thobias is wanted by a court in Puerto Rico.

Born in Chicago in 1993, Thobias built his fortune selling supplements through Amazon and became known in Medellín for a lavish lifestyle. His assets included a mansion in the exclusive El Poblado area and several imported luxury cars. In May 2023, he brought Colombia’s first Bugatti Chiron to the country. The vehicle was valued at $3.6 million, or about 16 billion Colombian pesos. In 2024, he became the first person to import a Tesla Cybertruck into Colombia.

Authorities in the United States arrested Thobias in July 2025 after a federal indictment in Puerto Rico charged him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The indictment, dated July 2, 2025, linked him to an alleged scheme involving supplements sold on Amazon. Prosecutors said he manipulated reviews for his company and created shell-company profiles to buy his own products, then moved the proceeds through other accounts to launder the money.

The case has brought renewed attention to the fortune Thobias displayed so openly in Medellín. Colombian authorities are now handling the assets covered by the forfeiture process while the U.S. criminal case remains active.

About this summary

Originally published by El Tiempo in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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