Popular Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, alias “Ray Hushpuppi” has officially been charged for fraud and may be sentenced to 20-years jail term in the United States.
Hushpuppi is facing criminal charges on money laundering. He was arrested by Interpol in Dubai in June 2020.
It was alleged that he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams.
US Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday, 3rd July that if he is found guilty, he could spend 20 years in prison.
“If convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, Abbas would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison,” the statement read.
A criminal complaint was filed by FBI’s Special Agent, Andrew John Innocenti, before the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
The complaint read, “beginning no later than October 15, 2019, and continuing through at least October 17, 2019, in the county of Los Angeles, in the Central District of California, and elsewhere, the defendant conspired to launder proceeds fraudulently obtained from a law firm.”
According to the DOJ, he arrived in Chicago on Thursday evening and made his initial U.S. court appearance on Friday morning in Chicago.
He will be “transferred to Los Angeles in the coming weeks,” Department of Justice said.
DoJ also noted that according to the criminal complaint filed on June 25 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles against him, it was alleged that Hushpuppi and others committed a BEC scheme that defrauded a client of a New York-based law firm out of approximately $922,857 in October 2019.
Hushpuppi and co-conspirators allegedly “tricked one of the law firm’s paralegals into wiring money intended for the client’s real estate refinancing to a bank account that was controlled by Abbas and the co-conspirators,” DoJ statement said.
Moreover, the fraudulent schemes also targeted a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club.
“The affidavit also alleges that Abbas conspired to launder funds stolen in a $14.7 million cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution in February 2019, in which the stolen money was sent to bank accounts around the world.
“Abbas allegedly provided a co-conspirator with two bank accounts in Europe that Abbas anticipated each would receive €5 million (about $5.6 million) of the fraudulently obtained funds,” it continued.
“Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premier League soccer club, the complaint alleges.”
“This was a challenging case, one that spanned international boundaries, traditional financial systems and the digital sphere,” said Jesse Baker, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Los Angles Field Office.
Recall that the Economics Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria had earlier declared Hushpuppi the most wanted hacker in Nigeria.
Moreover, the Dubai Interpol earlier released a statement and a video showing Hushpuppi’s arrest while disclosing that Hushpuppi has defrauded over 1.9 million people of N160b.
Watch the video of his arrest below:
This video preceded his transfer from Dubai to the United States on Wednesday.
Many Nigerians and even celebrities such as Terry G, Daddy Freeze, among others have reacted to his arrest. Some are happy he has been arrested, noting that his arrest is long overdue.
However, others are sympathetic with him.