Hushpuppi once posted on his Instagram page saying “For somebody who is broke, I spend quite a lot of money. For someone who’s living a fake life, I think I have an amazing life. God, if this life is fake, please continue to grant it for me, I don’t want real life.” From his statement, one can easily see that he knew he was living a fake life but he told God to continue to grant him grace to remain in his fake life. He was proud living a fake life. In another instance he said “I’m still the billionaire Gucci Master. Let that marinate..” We can see evidence of pride in him.
Although one cannot tell the early life of Hushpuppi, from research, we understand that Hushpuppi’s birthday is July 14 but the very year has remained shrouded in secret. Hence, his very age is not known but there are speculations that he is in mid 30s. He was born in Lagos where he spent part of his life. He has so far not revealed his state of origin. He also has a girlfriend and two children said to be from different women. Hushpuppi’s father, mother and family are not yet known as at the time the research was made.
Mompha, one of his friends, was forced into revealing degrading facts about Hushpuppi, to the point of even saying ‘his father is a taxi driver and his mother a bread seller’. Hushpuppi neither denied nor confirmed those claims made by Mompha. However, he was said to have replied in a remark saying he’s a beggar and used to be a gambler.
In many of his posts, he has explained that he didn’t start out rich. People who knew him in Lagos confirmed this report by claiming that he became rich after moving from Nigeria to Malaysia. Hush is currently based in the United Arab Emirates where he was arrested. He has been shuttling between different countries and lodges in expensive five-star hotels in several locations.
He has told many of his acquaintances that he is into real estate in the United Arabs Emirates but unknown to them he is into cybercrimes. He is known for flaunting a lavish lifestyle that includes expensive cars, jewelry and private jets. Hushpuppi has over 2.3million fans on Instagram.
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He came into limelight due to the luxurious lifestyle he displays on Instagram. Aside from that, he had clashed with several Nigerian celebrities after accusing them of flaunting fake designers. Thanks to the many feuds, he became the centre of attraction. People began observing him from then.
One of the most notable persons he has had heated war of words with is Nigerian singer, Davido, who is widely considered the richest musician in Nigeria. Hushpuppi flaunts expensive clothing, wristwatches, shoes and others on his social media handles. He also boasts of some of the most expensive cars in the world. One of such cars is Bugatti which goes for over N2billion.
From a Ferrari to two Rolls Royce, just name them. He has them all. Investigations carried out revealed that some of his cars, besides Bugatti, were worth nearly N1billion. He joined Instagram in 2012, a social media platform he said he deliberately chose for himself to the abandonment of others. Hear him: “In 2012 I signed up on this app called Instagram. I like it how I can showcase myself here to the world. Beyond where I am, I have been exposed to many things here and getting to meet a lot of great people and some not very great people through the years.
“I have had my ups and downs on this app too, I have shared celebratory moments with you all and sometimes I have experienced some not very nice times here too in front of you all but hey, that’s what makes up for a great experience, the good and the bad! Last year around this time I hit a million followers on here which means it took 6 years of back and forth to get a million followers.” On his Instagram page, he has 2.4million followers and he follows 933 people.
His source of income and how he manages to maintain the expensive lifestyle has been a source of many speculations. Many people have accused him of being a fraudster before the news of his arrest broke out from the United Arabs Emirate. Ray Hushpuppi’s real name Raymond Igbalode. Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai by FBI and Interpol over allegations of $USD35 million fraud. It’s not clear when exactly he was arrested but news broke on 10 June 2020. His friend Woodberry was reportedly also arrested.
They have been involved in cybercrimes, targeting companies and individuals. Reports say they would send out letters from emails almost identical to those of legitimate companies, targeting customers of these customers with the purpose of diverting payments to themselves, a senior prosecutor told The Nation. He was wanted for fraud crimes in Europe, US, Nigeria, Middle East. According to Dubai police in the United Arabs Emirate, Hushpuppi has defrauded over 1,926,400 people worldwide to the tune of N168billion in cash. He is said to be the biggest cybercriminal globally. There are indications that he will either be killed or sentenced to life imprisonment.
These are some of the achievements and failures of Nigerians in the Diaspora. In any case, we should wait until he is convicted before we can crucify him. No Bias means objectivity in news writing and reporting.