Money fraud
UNSPLASH

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has sentenced Instagram celebrity Ramon Abass Olorunwa, also known as Hushpuppi, to 11 years and 3 months in prison after he was found guilty of committing fraud and money laundering on a global scale.

The 40-year-old influencer will spend 11 years and 3 months in prison, as well as pay $1,732,841 in restitution to two fraud victims. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge Otis D. Wright II.

Hushpuppi pleaded guilty in April 2021 to conspiracy to engage in money laundering. He was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in June 2020 and has remained in federal custody since his expulsion from the UAE.

The U.S. Court released a statement on the case, saying that Abbas had been bragging on social media about his lavish lifestyle - which was funded by his involvement in transnational fraud and money laundering conspiracies.

According to United States Attorney Martin Estrada, these conspiracies targeted victims from all around the world.

"Money laundering and business email compromise scams are a massive international crime problem, and we will continue to work with our law enforcement and international partners to identify and prosecute those involved, wherever they may be", she concluded.

"Ramon Abbas, who is also known by his alias 'Hushpuppi,' has been targeting both American and international victims - making him one of the most prolific money launderers in the world," said Don Alway, who is the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.

Who is Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi?

Hushpuppi has been deemed by the FBI to be one of the world's most prolific fraudsters. He got his start in Oworonshoki, a poverty-ridden coastal region located in Lagos, Nigeria's capital city.

Abbas's father was a taxi driver. Abbas liked to flash his cash around as he got older, but everyone knew where his mysterious wealth came from - he was a "yahoo boy".

"Yahoo Boys" are romance scammers who took their name from the first free email available in Nigeria. They scam people by pretending to be in a relationship with them and then asking for money.

Once a relationship is established under pretenses, romance scammers milk their online lovers for money. Like many yahoo boys, Abbas expanded his criminal activities beyond romance scams. Many yahoo boys went to Malaysia, so Abbas followed them, ending up in Kuala Lumpur around 2014, then Dubai in 2017.

In February 2019, Abbas was involved in an attempt to launder 13m euros ($12.9 m) that had been stolen by a gang of North Korean hackers from the Maltese Bank of Valletta.

In May 2019, Abbas was given the task of setting up a bank account in Mexico that would receive £100m($114 m) from a Premier League Football Club and £200m ($229m) from a UK firm. The scams were to be carried out through the Business Email Compromise (BEC).

BEC scams work by intercepting payments via fake emails that look like they're coming from the supplier. The scammers pose as the supplier and say they've switched banks, so the payment needs to be wired to a different account. The details are provided in the email.

The accounts clerk thinks it's a legitimate request and transfers the money with a single click. This results in huge losses for the company. However, The Premiership scandal fell apart when UK banks refused to pay into the Mexican account.