US Court Reportedly Postpones Sentencing Of Hushpuppi Till July 11

By Florence Cornelius On Feb 2, 2022

United States District Court for the Central District of California has postponed the sentencing of self-confessed international fraudster, Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas till July 11, 2022.

According to PeoplesGazette, court document showed that Judge Otis D. Wright in Los Angeles granted the order after Hushpuppi’s lawyers led by Louis Shapiro entered a request for postponement.

He is expected to remain in custody in the intervening period of the delay.

The international internet fraudster was previously scheduled to be sentenced on February 14 for frauding people across different continents to the tune of millions of dollars.

He pleaded guilty last year to the charges, seeking a lighter sentence.

“At the request of counsel, the sentencing is continued to July 11, 2022, at 11:00 a.m.,” the court document said after the decision was taken on February 2.

Meanwhile, police chief Abba Kyari and several other Nigerian co-conspirators of Hushpuppi have either been indicted and at large or currently facing charges at different courts over the intercontinental conspiracy that spanned several years.

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.

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.

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.

The socialite would later plead guilty to money laundering, putting him at the risk of 20 years imprisonment.