Social media influencer Hushpuppi sentenced to 11 years in prison over money laundering conspiracy. S2.3 Hushpuppi. "But they also have to cover their losses, so right now he doesn't know how he can get back to the UAE. The bank did not respond to a request for comment. Jon Shilland, fraud lead with the UK's National Crime Agency, says it can be difficult tracking down criminal networks based in multiple jurisdictions. Local driver Seye told the BBC that he remembered Abbas as a young boy working alongside his mother in the Olojojo market. A notorious Instagram influencer from Nigeria has been jailed for more than 11 years in the US for his role in an international fraud syndicate. Abbass final big scam before his arrest in Dubai in June 2020 was straight-up identity theft, borrowed from the Yahoo Boy romance scams of his youth. We don't have an account for this email address. Wia dis foto come from, Twitter/@USAO_LosAngeles. But soon, the cracks between the gang started to show. In May 2019, Abbas was tasked with setting up a bank account in Mexico. ", Seye says everyone knows Hushpuppi has committed a crime, but it is understandable: "No-one prays to be poor. In the last 7 days. His father was a taxi driver. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. They came up with the idea of stealing identities. Na U.S. law firm, one foreign bank and one English Premier League club be im target. A fact known all too well by Dubai-based lawyer Barney Almazar. He represents around 25 people - including eight UK citizens - in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all of whom believe they are victims of one of Hushpuppi's BEC scams. "We cannot say with 100% certainty that Hushpuppi is behind it," Mr Almazar says. [35] A recent study demonstrates that many people on Twitter trivialize the fraudulent actions of online fraudsters such as Hushpuppi. It is alleged that Mr Kyari then falsely arrested and detained the middleman for a month in a squalid Nigerian cell. The Judge had initially rejected the plea of the defendant's motion for a delay of judgement. The 37-year-old began his career in Oworonshoki, a poor coastal area in the north-east of Lagos, Nigerias commercial capital. He fears that he might get apprehended at immigration immediately.. please read our, Internet Fraud: U.S. court sets Mr Woodberrys sentencing for July 11, Hushpuppis accomplice pleads guilty to internet fraud; agrees to pay $8 million to victims, Fraud: Hushpuppis partner forfeits choice Dubai properties, to pay $8m, Hushpuppis partner Woodberry to pay $8 million after pleading guilty to fraud. The rise and fall of Hushpuppi the social media influencer and global money-launderer. Mr Pissetzky admits that he is not "100% familiar" with social media and his children consider him too old but he knows "that's how people make money today". Lazarus, S., & Button, M. (2022). They see another young person who was once like them become that great. "This case targets a key player in a large, transnational conspiracy who was living an opulent lifestyle in another country while allegedly providing safe havens for stolen money around the world," United States Attorney Nick Hanna said in a statement when the charges were announced. "[36] Creating these phrases is essential linguistic maneuvering, enabling a sharp comparison of the similarities between Hushpuppi, a fraudster, popularly known as an offender, and a prominent authority representative, uncritically seen as a law-abiding citizen. Some of it was laundered via the purchase of a watch worth a staggering $230,000. Abbas's final big scam before his arrest in Dubai in June 2020 was straight-up identity theft, borrowed from the Yahoo Boy romance scams of his youth. Why you fit trust BBC News; How dem dey take use am; Stay informed. Only a single letter or number will be different. Is climate change killing Australian wine? A Nigerian man accused of multimillion-dollar fraud and money laundering by the United States was kidnapped by the FBI from Dubai, his lawyer says. Brother I cant send from UK to Mexico, Abbass sidekick messaged him. [36] The study concludes that the process by which some actions are interpreted as a crime compared to others is a moral enterprise. Some are hesitant to admit what has happened.. An individual may contact you via e-mail, explaining he needs help to transfer money, Will tell you that political turmoil or a natural disaster makes it difficult for him to make the transfer, Will ask you to give him your financial details so that he can transfer the money into your account, This allows him to access and steal from your account, Be careful what you post on social media and dating sites as scammers use the details to better understand you and target you. The Latest. [30] The Police chief was further implicated after his conversation with Hushpuppi was released. Their foreign suppliers did not receive the money Were talking about thousands of euros.. Homepage. So when you see someone who is rich, you will pray to God to give you his kind of wealth., BBCs detailed report on Hushpuppi the Instagram influencer and international fraudster, he attempted to launder 13m euros (11m; $15m) stolen by a gang of North Korean hackers from the Maltese Bank of Valletta, pleading guilty in April to money laundering. One member threatened to blow the whole scam wide open as he was unhappy about the money he was getting. "We cannot say with 100% certainty that Hushpuppi is behind it," Mr Almazar says. The 37-year-old began his career in Oworonshoki, a poor coastal area in the north-east of Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital. He was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $30 million in restitution. He used to buy beer for everyone around.. He used to buy beer for everyone around.". Feds used his posts to link him to alleged cyber crimes", "Money laundering: US court to sentence Hushpuppi on Valentine's Day", "Nigerian Influencer Ramon 'Hushpuppi' Abbas, Accused By FBI Of Money Laundering, Is Denied Bail", "Why We Arrested Hushpuppi Dubai Police", "How the FBI used Instagram and Snapchat to track down an alleged conman in Dubai", "Di big numbers behind Hushpuppi arrest and why e shake Nigeria", "Hushpuppi is into real estate, not a fraudster - Lawyer", "Nigerian Man Sentenced to Over 11 Years in Federal Prison for Conspiring to Launder Tens of Millions of Dollars from Online Scams", "Instagram influencer 'Hushpuppi' arrested amid claims of 350million global cyberscam", "Hushpuppi: Formerly A Second-hand Clothes Seller In Lagos, Now A Billionaire Fraudster", "Mompha Shares Photo Of The Yellow Taxi Allegedly Being Used By Hushpuppi's Dad To Earn A Living", "INSIDE STORY: The Lagos slum where Hushpuppi bought food on credit and washed cars to survive", "Hushpuppi Blasts Phyno, Olamide & Timaya After Watching "telli Person" Musical Video", "VIDEO: "Hushpuppi Was Warned Before His Arrest" - Fans React To Timaya's Telli Person Video", "Hushpupi Arraigned in US Court for Conspiring to Defraud English Premier League Club $124m (see full charges)", "Update 3 | BOV cyber attack: 13 million transferred out with false transactions", "Hacker linked to BOV's 13 million cyber heist denied bail", "Nigerian scammer arrested by FBI could be behind 13m BOV cyberattack", "Nigerian National Brought to U.S. to Face Charges of Conspiring to Launder Hundreds of Millions of Dollars from Cybercrime Schemes", "Nigerian Instagram Star Aided North Korea Cyber Crime, U.S. Says", https://media.premiumtimesng.com/wp-content/files/2020/07/usa_v_abbas_complaint_0.pdf, "Hushpuppi connected to several cyber crimes EFCC", "Five reasons Hushpuppi must remain in detention - U.S. Court", "The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master", "Hushpuppi: Nigerian influencer pleads guilty to money laundering", "JUST IN: Hushpuppi narrates how he bribed Nigerian top cop Abba Kyari in $1.1 million deal", "Nigeria respond afta US order for arrest of Abba Kyari wey dem indict for Hushpuppi fraud case", "FBI Releases Conversation Between Hushpuppi And Abba Kyari [See Full Text]", "Hushpuppi thanks FBI for doing great job to make world safer from "criminals like myself", "Hushpuppi scores last-minute relief as court postpones sentencing to November 2022", "Hushpuppi: Notorious Nigerian fraudster jailed for 11 years in US", https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11142, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/564560-rapper-50-cent-to-produce-hushpuppi-series.html, https://www.instagram.com/p/CkwSkKzORE-/?hl=en, https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-hushpuppi-gucci-influencer/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXA7rcVBslU, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hushpuppi&oldid=1149991788, Nigerian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Hushpuppi, Hush, Ray Hushpuppi, The Billionaire Gucci Blaiso, Alleged business email compromise, scam, and money laundering, This page was last edited on 15 April 2023, at 17:51. The scams were to be carried out via Business Email Compromise (BEC). In February 2019, he attempted to launder 13m euros (11m; $15m) stolen by a gang of North Korean hackers from the Maltese Bank of Valletta. "Yahoo Boys" are romance scammers who took their name from the first free email available in Nigeria. Nigerian social media influencer, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas popularly known as Ray Hushpuppi, was charged and indicted in a $1.1 million fraud by the United States On Instagram, he dropped the "Billionaire Gucci Master" moniker for "Real Estate Developer" about eight months before his arrest and subsequent transfer to the US to stand trial. Please ensure your password has at least 8 characters, an uppercase and a lowercase letter, and a number or symbol. Ramon Abbas - better known as Hushpuppi to his millions of followers - has pleaded guilty to money laundering in a US court.The Nigerian social media influencer was famous for his extravagant lifestyle, showing off his designer clothing, luxury holidays, and expensive cars to 2.5million Instagram followers and 1.3 million Snapchat subscribers.But unknown to his fans, his lifestyle was funded by cybercrime.Originally from humble beginnings in Lagos, the so-called 'billionaire Gucci master' living a life of luxury in Dubai is now facing a 20-year jail sentence in the USA - and the FBI have dubbed him one of the world's most high-profile money launderers.Reporter: Princess AbumereProducer: Helen CliftonFilmed and edited: Joshua AkinyemiAnimations: Mayowa AlabiSubscribe: http://bit.ly/subscribetoafrica\rWebsite: https://www.bbc.com/africa\rFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbcnewsafrica/\rTwitter: https://www.twitter.com/bbcafrica/\rInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/bbcafrica/ BEC fraud is a huge issue across the world. Ramon Abbas - known to his 2.5 million Instagram followers as Hushpuppi - is considered by the FBI to be one of the [38][39] A short documentary about the life of Hushpuppi till his arrest has been released by both Bloomberg[40] and BBC Africa.[41]. Only a single letter or number will be different. Between December 2019 and February 2020, Abbas and a gang of alleged middlemen in Kenya, Nigeria and the US groomed and conned the victim out of more than a million dollars. Jon Shilland, fraud lead with the UKs National Crime Agency, says it can be difficult tracking down criminal networks based in multiple jurisdictions. Terrifyingly simple, BEC works by intercepting payments via fake emails that appear to come from an address that is almost exactly the same as the supplier's. "In my opinion, the FBI and the government here acted illegally when they kidnapped him from Dubai without any legal process to do so," Mr Pissetzky told the BBC. They see another young person who was once like them become that great. Insurance Penetration: CIIG moves to deepen awareness on policy purchase, May Day Celebration: Workers in Nkwanta rally to demand better labor conditions -Adom TV News, Access to Electricity: 12 border communities at Chereponi are connected to the national grid - Adom. None of the Premiership clubs would confirm whether or not they were the intended victim. But soon, the cracks between the gang started to show. Mr Pissetzky says the case could last several months, even longer than a year. The bank said it managed to recover 10m euros. WebThe Latest news in Nigeria and world news. It stated that Hushpuppi risks 20 years imprisonment; a 3-year period of supervised release; a fine of $500,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offence. Little did they know that his lavish lifestyle was funded through a complex web of cyber-heists. Read about our approach to external linking. 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