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Hushpuppi: Gucci fraudster finally bags 11 years imprisonment in US court
- Hushpuppi was ordered to pay fraud victims $1.7 million.
- He will enjoy his next 11 years in a US prison for his role in a global scam
- Judge rejects his lawyer’s request for leniency
The well-known Instagram influencer, Hushpuppi from Nigeria who participated in a global fraud ring was ordered to spend the next 11 years in a US prison for his role in a global theft and money-laundering scam.
Hushpuppi whose real name is Ramon Abbas, boasted about his opulent lifestyle on his 2.8 million-follower page before it was taken down. Ramon Abbas, 40, was sentenced to 135 months in prison on Monday in Los Angeles after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in April 2021.
According to the US government, Hushpuppi assisted North Korean hackers in their attempts to launder money of more than $1.3 billion through cyber-enabled bank heists.
Hushpuppi gave up the majority of his appeals rights when he agreed to enter a guilty plea, though he is still permitted to do so in certain circumstances.
“Everything is on the table,” Abbas’s lawyer John Iweanoge said after the sentencing hearing in Los Angeles, where he suggested an appropriate sentence would have been four to five years. “It was way, way more than we thought,” he said of the prison term imposed by the judge.
Abbas, a Nigerian native, rose to fame through Instagram posts to his more than 2 million followers. In these posts, Abbas is frequently seen grinning in front of a Rolls Royce or a Ferrari or relaxing in a seat on a private jet. He was referred to as a “Nigerian big boy”—a slang term for an online scammer—on gossip blogs.
Bloomberg did a full detail of Hushpuppi, The Fall of the ‘Billionaire Gucci Master’.
Ramon Abbas perfected a straightforward online scam that enabled him to launder millions of dollars, wealth that he boasted about brazenly on Instagram. The young Nigerian rose to prominence among the world’s elite after receiving gifts from fashion brands. But in the end, his fame would be his undoing.
In the article, Bloomberg examines the rise and fall of one of the most notorious internet fraudsters and how Dubai and American law enforcement finally managed to apprehend him. His case represents only a small portion of the enormous global cybercrime market, which is still growing.
“He was an equal opportunity criminal,” prosecutors said in a court filing, citing his “long history as a scammer and money launderer.” Abbas “is, by all accounts, an ambitious individual, but his ambition has long been directed towards crime and its rewards,” the government said. His “conduct was reprehensible and deserves serious punishment.”
According to a statement from the then-acting US Attorney Tracy Wilkinson on the website of the US justice department, the fraudster deceived his victim into giving money to the school “by playing the roles of bank officials and creating a bogus website”. Court claimed that additional suspects were allegedly involved, with Abbas playing a crucial part.
The US justice department said Hushpuppi also admitted to “a number of other cyber and business email compromise schemes that collectively caused more than $24 million in losses.”
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“Ramon Abbas… targeted both American and international victims, becoming one of the most prolific money launderers in the world,” said Don Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, in a court document on Monday.
“Abbas leveraged his social media platforms… to gain notoriety and to brag about the immense wealth he acquired by conducting business email compromise scams, online bank heists, and other cyber-enabled fraud that financially ruined scores of victims and provided assistance to the North Korean regime.
“This significant sentence is the result of years’ worth of collaboration among law enforcement in multiple countries and should send a clear warning to international fraudsters that the FBI will seek justice for victims, regardless of whether criminals operate within or outside United States borders.”
US District Judge Otis Wright stated that he thought Abbas was being described by the prosecution and defense teams as two different people. He sold his two Rolls Royces, a Ferrari, and a Range Rover in order to make good on his promise to pay back his victims in full.
Hushpuppi acknowledged in his plea deal that he helped convicted money launderer Ghaleb Alaumary open accounts in Romania and Bulgaria to launder proceeds from a bank heist in Malta. North Korean hackers were accused by the US of stealing or plotting to steal 13 million Euros ($13 million) from a Maltese bank.
The judge was asked by the prosecution to sentence Hushpuppi to 11 years and 3 months in jail. According to his attorneys, Abbas was unaware of the size of the conspiracy or the number of participants. They attributed his participation to his gullibility and bad judgment.
“Mr. Abbas was not the leader, organizer, or supervisor in the commission of this offense,” his attorneys said. “Mr. Abbas has done everything in his power to right his wrongful acts.”
According to his lawyers, “Mr. Abbas was not the leader, organizer, or supervisor in the commission of this offense.” “Mr. Abbas has taken every action at his disposal to make amends for his wrongdoings.”
Alaumary, of Mississauga, Ontario, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering and was given a sentence of more than 11 years in September.
In a letter to the judge, Abbas apologized for his actions. “If I could turn back the hands of time I would make an entirely different decision and be more careful in the choices and friends I make,” he said in the handwritten letter.