A social media influencer has been accused of helping run a ruthless ‘sextortion’ racket targeting wealthy married businessmen, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Kane Samms, 35, is named in two High Court cases brought by men who claim they were lured into online relationships online – before being threatened with exposure unless they paid huge sums. He denies any involvement. 

Samms had been in a long-term relationship with glamorous TikTok star Natalia Armstrong, 25. However, friends say she dumped him last week after learning of the allegations.

The alleged victims believed they were chatting to young women they had met through luxury dating site Seeking.

But after private messages and photographs were exchanged, the businessmen claim they were identified and threatened with having intimate material sent to their wives, families and business associates.

One wealthy New York entrepreneur paid around $50,000 – approximately £39,000 – after allegedly being promised the material would be deleted.

However, he claimed the threats began again just a week later, with the alleged blackmailers demanding another £100,000.

TikTok boxer Kane Samms, 35, is named in two High Court cases brought by men who claim they were lured into online relationships online – before being threatened with exposure unless they paid huge sums 

Following the revelations, Samms’ partner, 25-year-old TikTok star Natalia Armstrong, ended their relationship 

In a strikingly similar case, a second businessman says he handed over more than £90,000 over four months as demands continued to escalate.

Samms was one of four men named in emergency injunction proceedings aimed at stopping private material from being released.

The father-of-two, who also postures online as a bulldog breeder and amateur boxer, denies involvement in blackmail or financially benefitting.

The Daily Mail, however, can reveal he is a convicted criminal who will be sentenced next month for assault and intentional strangulation.

Until last month, Samms had been in a relationship with Ms Armstrong, a well-known social media influencer with 260,000 followers and 14 million TikTok ‘likes’.

The pair regularly shared snippets of their lives together – including the birth of a daughter.

But friends say Ms Armstrong recently ended the relationship and has now moved back to her family home near Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

She is said to be ‘horrified’ and to have had ‘no idea’ about his alleged activity.

A friend said: ‘Natalia was there when Kane was served a brown paper envelope, containing the writ, but he skimmed two pages of it and filed it in a drawer.

‘He didn’t speak to her about it and she was none the wiser as to what he may have been up to.

‘She was horrified to learn what is being alleged.

‘Natalia wants nothing to do with him. She has moved back to her family home near Doncaster and wants to get on with her life, and raise her daughter.’

Samms and Armstrong regularly shared snippets of their lives as a family together – including their son and the birth of a daughter (pictured) 

Samms had amassed a loyal following of nearly 50,000 on TikTok 

The Daily Mail revealed Samms to be a convicted criminal who will be sentenced next month for assault and intentional strangulation

Samms and the three other men named in the papers have not been found guilty of any crime.

However, the High Court was shown evidence which a judge said suggested the activities of a blackmailing gang.

The latest injunction was served last month when the New York businessman took urgent legal action ahead of a deadline set by the alleged gang.

The man, identified in court only by the initials HSX, had created an account on Seeking, a dating website aimed at successful and wealthy users.

He then began exchanging messages with someone he believed was a 23-year-old woman.

Their conversation moved away from the dating website and on to the encrypted messaging service Telegram, where photos and private messages were exchanged.

His solicitor, Yair Cohen, said the man – who had taken to the dating website during a ‘fragile period’ – sent only clothed photographs and did not send sexually explicit material.

However, the businessman allegedly then became a target, with the existence of the conversation used as leverage against him.

The gang allegedly threatened to send the conversations to his wife and friends unless he transferred money to a named bank account.

The entrepreneur also claimed the group planned to make false allegations that he had attempted to arrange sexual contact with a child.

Fearing catastrophic damage to his marriage and career, he paid around $50,000 – the equivalent of approximately £39,000 – on the promise that the material would be erased.

However, he said the gang instead returned – this time increasing their demands to £100,000.

Ms Armstrong is a well-known social media influencer with 260,000 followers and 14 million TikTok ‘likes’ 

Lawyers served papers on Samms (pictured, with his pregnant ex) and his co-accused after being identified using open-source intelligence. They traced email address, phone and WhatsApp numbers and Revolut and Wise bank accounts

The father-of-two, who also postures online as a bulldog breeder and amateur boxer, denies involvement in blackmail or financially benefiting 

The threatened disclosures were due to be made on July 20, leaving the businessman facing a frantic race to stop the material from being circulated.

Mr Cohen, of London law firm Cohen Davis, said: ‘Our client is a US businessman with a family and a career built over decades.

‘During a fragile period in his family life, he engaged with what appeared to be a woman on the Seeking dating website, a platform that presents itself as high-end and vetted, which is precisely why successful men feel safe there, and precisely what the gangs operating fake profiles are counting on.

‘The conversation moved off the platform to Telegram, where the site’s moderation could not see it.

‘He sent clothed photographs only. He said nothing explicit. And he was blackmailed anyway: the chat itself, and the fact of it, became the material he was threatened with. This was not one person improvising.

‘The demands, the accounts and the pressure carried the hallmarks of an organised operation, with scripts, roles and a spread of platforms and payment accounts designed to make the people behind it hard to find.

‘By the time he called us, our client had already done what most sophisticated people in his position do.

‘He had instructed private investigators in the United States to identify the blackmailers, and they could not.

‘He had his US corporate lawyers advising him. He had paid $50,000, hoping the matter would close.

‘None of it stopped the demands, because the operation sat on the other side of the Atlantic, spread across a dating platform, Telegram, WhatsApp and UK-linked payment accounts, beyond the reach of an investigation conducted from the US.’

Lawyers served papers on Samms and his co-accused after being identified using open-source intelligence. They traced email address, phone and WhatsApp numbers and Revolut and Wise bank accounts.

Samms was also named in another injunction brought by another businessman who claims he was targeted in almost identical circumstances.

That claimant, anonymised as RXE, is a British national who claimed he was targeted in February ‘while travelling and going through a difficult period in his life’.

Until last month, Samms had been in a relationship with Ms Armstrong

Mr Cohen said: ‘He was in the United States and believed he was talking to a woman online. The conversation became sexual and images were exchanged. There was never a meeting; the whole relationship existed in messages.

‘Then the demands began. The people behind the profile appeared to know about his family, his personal life and his business, and had used facial recognition software to identify him. They threatened to send the material to his wife, to his business contacts and to the wider public.

‘Between March and June the demands escalated, and out of fear he paid: more than $70,000 (£60,000) and £30,000 in total, each payment made in the hope that it would be the last. It never was.’

The man turned to legal advice in June, days before the blackmailers returned with another demand for £50,000.

None of the four named men across both cases attended the hearings, nor were they legally represented.

Setting out the evidence in the case of the American businessman, Mr Justice Fordham heard of the ‘conspicuous’ links back to Britain – and specifically Manchester.

The money was demanded and paid in sterling, while bank accounts supplied during the alleged scheme carried British details.

A voice message was also left by someone speaking with a British accent. Investigators linked an email address to a residential address in Manchester.

Samms was traced to another Manchester address and linked to a British telephone number, according to the court.

Mr Justice Fordham described the threats as ‘serious’ and said the businessman had suffered ‘significant harm’.

He added: ‘The evidence suggests the activities of a blackmailing gang, at least two of whose members are located in the UK, in Manchester.’

The High Court injunction prohibits the defendants from publishing, communicating or disclosing the businessmen’s private information.

They have also been ordered to provide information about the people controlling the relevant dating profiles, messaging accounts, telephone numbers and payment channels.

When approached by the Daily Mail at an apartment in Manchester, Samms denied any involvement.

He said: ‘I did not authorise, facilitate or knowingly participate in any blackmail, nor did I receive any payment arising from blackmail.

‘My position is that my bank details were used without my knowledge or consent for purposes of which I was unaware. I therefore strongly dispute any suggestion that I was involved in carrying out blackmail.’