Millionaire influencer wanted by cops over viral video showing him throwing his baby into snowdrift ‘for likes’
COPS have issued an arrest warrant for an influencer who filmed himself launching his baby into a pile of snow for likes on social media.
Sergey Kosenko, the Russian millionaire behind the dangerous stunt, threw the innocent infant who was thought to be just two-months old at the time.
Sergey is known as Mr Thank You on social media, where he has 46.6million followers on Instagram alone.
The self-described actor, singer, influencer, entrepreneur posted the video in January, 2024.
The viral clip has been viewed thousands of times around the world – and now one year on cops are taking action after growing backlash.
The distressing slow motion footage shows Sergey launching the toddler into the air, leaving him to come crashing back down to Earth.
The baby, who only has a coat on for protection, disappears through the deep snow drift completely.
Since then, Russian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Sergey, which also ordered his assets to be frozen.
Local media have reported that authorities have frozen RUB 206 million (£1.6 million) distributed across 43 bank accounts.
Basmanny district court of Moscow arrested in him absentia, meaning that he was not present at the time the warrant was issued.
The Russian authorities said in a statement: “The accused threw the child away from himself and upward, allowing him to fall from a height.
“The criminal intent was not completed due to the child’s fall being softened by the snow cover.”
Despite not placing an extradition order on the influencer, authorities have ordered that he be detained for two months from the moment he arrives on Russian soil.
Sergey claimed that he actually used a dummy child in the clip and did not put his son in danger.
Sergei Zhorin, the suspect‘s lawyer, told local media that his client was ready to cooperate with law enforcement.
The suspect now faces charges of attempted intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm to a minor and failure to fulfil his duties to raise a minor.
If Sergey is convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison for his crimes.
The video received massive backlash when it was posted, so much so that Sergey took it down at a later date.
Sergey titled the video “Leo‘s first flight”.
Even though he took the video down, this didn’t deter Sergey from later posting more videos of dangerous snow jumping.
He posted two more videos of himself and the child’s mother jumping into the snow.
He accompanied these images with the caption: “Careful! This is snow! Do not repeat! Very dangerous.”
This is also not the first time that Sergey has come under scrutiny for his stunts on social media.
In 2021, he attracted similarly negative attention after a stunt in which he drove a car around Moscow with a woman taped to the roof.
The influencer currently lives abroad, with reports saying that he splits his time between Los Angeles and Dubai.