Hushpuppi, a popular Instagram celebrity, has been charged again after US prosecutors submitted court documents demonstrating how he committed fraud and laundered over $400k from behind bars.
On March 16, 2022, US prosecutors presented documents to the United States District Court of California with new evidence indicting HushPuppi of fraud and money laundering in a US Federal correctional facility.
According to court documents, Hushpuppi took part in the purchase and laundering of Economic Impact Payment debit cards obtained fraudulently from stolen data of US citizens and residents while imprisoned in a US Federal correctional facility.
According to the court document, inmates have limited access to phone calls, video calls, the internet, and pcs, but they are not monitored because inmates have the right to privacy. Hushpuppi, like the other inmates, was granted this privilege.
However, security officers at a US Federal correctional facility observed him using the internet more frequently between the 28th of January and the 4th of March 2022.
They obtained a warrant to record Hushpuppi’s activities after learning that he had been arrested for internet-related crimes. A special system was set up for him, and his actions were tracked for seven days.
Hushpuppi was discovered to be actively purchasing EIP debit cards from an underground cyber criminal marketplace called StimulusCard.
He purchased 58 EIP debit cards worth $429,800 on the site while being recorded and laundered the cash by one AJ.
Back Story
Ramon Abbas, often known as Hushpuppi, Hush, or Ray Hushpuppi, was born on October 11, 1982, in Nigeria. He was once an Instagram influencer but was later found guilty of fraud. For conspiring to launder money obtained through business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm of about $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution, and intended to steal $124 million from an English Premier League club, he was given an 11-year sentence in the United States.
Abbas posted photos and videos of himself boarding helicopters, hanging out with celebrities, football players, and Nigerian politicians, and taking flights on charter jets up until his arrest by the Dubai Police in June 2020 and subsequent extradition to the United States. He also posted photos and videos of his extravagant spending on exotic cars, watches, designer clothing, and bags from pricey brands like Gucci, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton. He identified himself as a developer of properties. He also has a passport from St. Kitts and Nevis that was acquired illegally via a fictitious marriage to a resident of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Abbas was held along with eleven other people when the Palazzo Versace, where he lived, was searched in the evening as part of an operation called “Fox Hunt 2.” Detectives seized 800,000 emails of possible victims, along with more than 150 million dirhams (about $40 million) in cash, 13 high-end automobiles valued at DH25 million ($7 million), 21 computers, 47 cellphones, 15 memory storage devices, and five external hard drives. His arrest was a result of an FBI investigation that identified him as a “key actor” in a global network of transnational cybercrime that offered “safe havens for stolen money.”
