United States attorney’s office at the central district of California has revealed that Ramon Abbas, self-confessed international fraudster better known as Hushpuppi, will be sentenced on Valentine’s Day (February 14).
According to BBC Pidgin, Thom Mrozek, the court’s director of media relations, said Hushpuppi’s case is set to come to a close.
Read Also: Hushpuppi, Woodberry And Others Allegedly Arrested By Interpol In Dubai
“The court has scheduled the case of Mr. Abbas for sentencing on February 14, 2022” Mrozek said.
The court’s spokesperson, however, did not give any information on the duration of trial and sentence.
Background
Before his arrest, Hushpuppi lived a life of luxury in Dubai – in a multi-million dollar money laundering empire – and always flaunted his expensive lifestyle on his 2.5 million followers-Instagram account.
Read Also: Hushpuppi Laundered Funds For North Korean Hackers, Says US Department Of Justice
He used the social media platform to show his largesse, sharing photos of extravagant shopping trips, luxury cars, clothes, and watches.
Hushpuppi owned a fleet of luxury cars, including a Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maybach.
However, in June 2020, he was arrested in United Arab Emirates alongside 11 of his associates over allegations bordering on hacking, impersonation, scamming, banking fraud, and identity theft.
A short film detailing how Dubai police tailed and arrested a gang of online fraudsters including the socialites was released.
According to the narrator in the four-minute film released on June 25, the operation which led to the arrest of 12 fraudsters was for about four months.
Six raids were carried out simultaneously while some of them were asleep in their Dubai apartments.
Dubai police was able to track down Hushpuppi and his gang after months of investigating and monitoring their social media activities.
The film narrator stated that fake pages for existing websites were created by the gang to redirect any payments to their bank accounts.
Read Also: Hushpuppi And Woodberry Extradited To US
His extradition to the United States followed after the UAE police detailed his arrest in a special operation dubbed ‘Fox Hunt 2’, where he was accused of defrauding 1.9 million victims to the tune of N168 billion.
According to the Dubai police, 13 luxury cars, estimated at 35 million Dirham (N3.7bn) were recovered from the house where they were arrested.
Dubai Police later handed Hushpuppi and his conspirators over to Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in the United States.
Further evidence in phone and computer records contained more than 100,000 fraudulent files.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in an affidavit stated 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.
He also provided a co-conspirator with two bank accounts in Europe that he anticipated each would receive €5 million (about $5.6 million) of the fraudulently obtained funds.
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.
Read Also: Hushpuppi Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering Charge, Faces Up To 20 Years In Prison
The socialite would later plead guilty to money laundering, putting him at the risk of 20 years imprisonment.
