A court in Los Angeles has sentenced Popular Instagram influencer, Ramon Abbas a.k.a Hushpuppi to jail for 11 years and three months in the US for his role in an international fraud syndicate.
As reported by BBC, Abbas will serve his sentence of 135 months in a federal prison and will be paying $1,732,841 (N762,034,158.16 ) to compensate two fraud victims as ordered by the Judge.
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and flown to the United States in June 2020 to face charges of multi-million dollars fraudulent schemes including “bank cyber-heists”.
It was gathered that US authorities stated that, Hushpuppi and his conspirators, through an extensive cyber-fraud, targeted multiple victims, including a bank in Malta, a law firm in New York, two companies in the United Kingdom, and a businessperson in Qatar.
Abbas, who initially denied the charges, made a turnaround to enter into a plea bargain agreement with the US authorities in July 2021, in the hope of getting a light sentence.
Don Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, in a court document on Monday, disclosed that Hushpuppi “targeted both American and international victims, becoming one of the most prolific money launderers in the world,”
“Abbas leveraged his social media platforms… to gain notoriety and to brag about the immense wealth he acquired by conducting business email compromise scams, online bank heists and other cyber-enabled fraud that financially ruined scores of victims and provided assistance to the North Korean regime.
“This significant sentence is the result of years’ worth of collaboration among law enforcement in multiple countries and should send a clear warning to international fraudsters that the FBI will seek justice for victims, regardless of whether criminals operate within or outside United States borders.”
Abbas apologised for his crimes to Judge Otis D Wright in a handwritten note, saying he would use his personal funds to pay back his victims. He also said he had only made $300,000 from the crime he was being tried for.
