Nigerian internet scammer Hushpuppi bags 11-year jail term in the USA
Nigerian internet scammer Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi Abbas, has been slapped with an 11-year jail term by a court in the USA.
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 over an extensive fraudulent scheme that robbed victims of their money in the U.S., Qatar, the United Kingdom, and other places.
He was taken to the U.S, where he was charged with fraud and money laundering.
A documentary released in 2021 showed that the convict laundered some of his loot through Nairobi.
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He pleaded guilty to the charges and admitted to money laundering and fraudulent schemes.
He will however spend nine years in prison considering he has already spent two years in jail since his arrest in 2020.
In his final appeal to judge Otis Wright before his sentencing, he wrote a letter to the court revealing his source of wealth, an apology to his family for bringing them shame and he commended the FBI for their good job in bringing him to justice.
This came a few days after his Instagram account was deactivated.
This was his account which he used as a platform to display his lavish lifestyle to his 2.8 million followers.
The account featured images of Abbas’s ostentatious lifestyle, including stepping out of a helicopter at Dubai’s Atlantis The Palm resort and collecting a new Rolls-Royce Cullinan.
Kristi Johnson, acting director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said that Abbas was one of the “most high-profile money launderers in the world”, who acted in the open rather than the shadows.
Almost $41m in cash and 13 cars valued at about $6.8m were seized, as were phone and computer evidence containing more than 100,000 fraudulent files.
In addition, the email addresses of nearly two million possible victims were found, Dubai Police said at the time.
Court documents said Abbas’s crimes cost victims almost $24 million. Prosecutors alleged he was responsible for scams worth hundreds of millions of dollars.