US Court Confirm Sentencing Hushpuppi to 11 years Plus Imprisonment, Order $1.7M Restitution Fee For Victims
Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, was sentenced to more than 135 months—more than 11 years—in federal prison on Monday by a US court in Los Angeles, California, after several months of adjournment.
According to a statement released by the court to Channels Television on Monday, US District Judge Otis D. Wright II ordered the 40-year-old prisoner to pay $1,732,841 in compensation to two fraud victims.
According to the judge, Hushpuppi planned to use online fraud to launder tens of millions of dollars while boasting about his opulent, crime-funded lifestyle on social media.
Ten months after his June 2020 arrest in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), he entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to participate in money laundering in April 2021.
Since being kicked out of the UAE, Hushpuppi has remained in US federal custody.
According to United States Attorney Martin Estrada, “Abbas boasted on social media about his opulent lifestyle, a lifestyle fueled by his involvement in international fraud and money laundering conspiracies targeting victims around the world.”
“We will continue to work with our law enforcement and foreign partners to locate and prosecute those involved, wherever they may be. Money laundering and business email compromise scams are a significant global crime problem.”
The court delayed Hushpuppi’s sentencing at least five times in 2022 alone before finally ruling on Monday. Hushpuppi’s sentencing was originally set for February 14 but was postponed to July 11 and September 21 before being moved again to November 3 and ultimately November 7.
Even while it had been rumored the previous week that he had received a jail sentence, it wasn’t until Monday that it became official.
Support For North Korea?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed that Hushpuppi used both American and foreign victims to become one of the most active money launderers in the world.
Hushpuppi “financially wrecked scores of victims and assisted the North Korean leadership,” according to the FBI, which examined the case as part of Operation Top Dog.
According to the investigation, Abbas and Ghaleb Alaumary, a 37-year-old money launderer from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, plotted to launder money obtained from a variety of crimes, including bank cyber-heists, business email compromise (BEC) schemes, and other internet frauds.
BEC scams frequently include getting illegal access to a victim company’s email account and trying to convince them to send an erroneous wire transfer.
The findings show that in January 2019, Hushpuppi and Alaumary planned to use account information for banks in Romania and Bulgaria to launder money that had been stolen from a bank in Malta. North Korean hackers are accused by the United States of carrying out the bank cyber-heist in Malta, and it is claimed that the stolen cash were intended for the North Korean government. Abbas has acknowledged that the Maltese bank’s projected loss was roughly $14.7 million.
He and Alaumary planned to launder millions of pounds that had been fraudulently obtained from a British business and a professional soccer team in May 2019. According to court documents, Abbas sent Alaumary information on a bank account in Mexico that “could manage millions and not block” in connection with that plan.
Hushpuppi also deceptively convinced a New York-based law firm to transfer $922,857 to an account that a co-conspirator owned under a different person’s identity in October 2019.
Alaumary was prosecuted separately and entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in November 2020. He was sentenced to 140 months in federal prison and must now pay over $30 million in reparations.
Hushpuppi said in his plea deal that he and others had planned to mislead a person in Qatar who had applied for a $15 million loan to construct a school.
Recovery Order
Judge Wright mandated Hushpuppi pay $809,983 in restitution to the Qatari businessman and $922,857 in reparation to the law firm victim at the sentencing hearing on Monday.
The businessman was tricked into handing over about $330,000 to finance a “investor’s account” in order to make the loan by him and another conspirator.
He specifically told the victim to wire $230,000 to a luxury watch dealer’s bank account and $100,000 to a co-bank conspirator’s account.
After depositing the cash into the bank account, the victim used the money for his own gain, spending it on a $230,000 Richard Mille RM11-03 watch that he had sent from New York to Dubai. On his now-defunct Instagram account, the watch was frequently depicted on his wrist along with the hashtag #RichardMille.
Through a fake marriage to a St. Kitts native, Abbas falsely obtained a citizenship and passport for St. Christopher (St. Kitts and Nevis) using about $50,000 of the scheme’s earnings.
Hushpuppi and a second conspirator wrote to the victim businessperson in January and February 2020 in an effort to falsely coerce them into paying an additional $575,000 in supposed taxes in order to release the $15 million loan. The victim sent about $299,983 to Kenyan bank accounts designated by a different conspirator in February 2020. He deceitfully convinced the victim to send an additional $180,000 to U.S. bank accounts in March 2020; the money were later laundered with the help of several co-conspirators.
Prosecutors stated in a sentencing brief that the defendant “by his own admission, during just an 18-month period defendant conspired to launder almost $300 million.” Although a major portion of this anticipated loss did not actually occur, [Abbas’] eagerness and capacity to engage in extensive money laundering emphasizes the gravity of his criminal behavior.
The FBI expressed gratitude to the Dubai Police Department and the government of the United Arab Emirates for their important support in this case.
With significant help from the Office of International Affairs of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section successfully prosecuted the case.
DCP Abba Kyari
The FBI had indicted DCP Abba Kyari, a Nigerian police officer who at the time of the indictment was the head of the Inspector General of the Police’s Intelligence Response Team, as part of its investigations into the case. Mr. Kyari has resisted attempts by the Nigerian government to send him to the US to face charges and has refuted the claims of fraud.
The Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the Federal Government’s extradition request in August of this year on the grounds that it was filed in bad faith, without merit, and was incompetent.
Justice Inyang Ekwo stated that since the trial in the case brought by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency against the troubled Deputy Commissioner of Police had already begun, the current administration had any justification for making the extradition request.
The National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) detained Kyari in February on suspicion of drug-related offenses. The suspended deputy police commissioner has already been charged by the NDLEA. Until the conclusion of the trial, he is being held on detention at the Kuje jail in Abuja.
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