‘World’s biggest money launderer’ Hushpuppi who plastered jet-set luxury life across Instagram is jailed over $24m fraud | The Sun
AN Instagram fraudster who flaunted his lavish lifestyle on social media after leading global scams worth millions has been jailed.
Ramon Abbas, who called himself Ray Hushpuppi, laundered millions of stolen dollars amid a series of cyberheists that saw him pocket millions and pose with supercars.
The 40-year-old Nigerian influencer used an extravagant social media persona boasting 2.5million followers to con victims all over the world.
He has now been sentenced in Los Angeles to more than 11 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution to two fraud victims, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Don Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said: "Abbas was one of the most prolific money launderers in the world."
Prosecutors said Abbas and a Canadian man laundered money from various online crimes including bank cyberheists and business email compromise – a prolific crime in which crooks hack into email accounts, pretend to be someone they're not and fool victims into wiring money where it doesn't belong.
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In 2019, he helped launder some $14.7 million stolen by North Korean hackers from a bank in Malta, funneling the money through banks in Romania and Bulgaria, prosecutors said.
He also helped launder millions of pounds stolen from a British company and a Premier League club, got a New York-based law firm to transfer nearly $923,000 to a criminal account and acknowledged in a plea agreement that he helped defraud someone in Qatar who sought a $15 million loan to build a school, federal prosecutors said.
At Monday's sentencing, Abbas was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay $922,857 in restitution to the law firm and $809,983 in restitution to the victim in Qatar.
By his own admission, during just an 18-month period defendant conspired to launder over $300 million, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, although they said much of the intended loss did not ultimately materialize.
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Abbas was arrested in 2020 in Dubai amid a raid following an FBI probe.
His social media posts showed him living a life of luxury, complete with private jets, ultra-expensive cars and high-end clothes and watches.
One Instagram post read: "I hope someday I will be inspiring more young people to join me on this path."
Court documents show Abbas started his career as a Yahoo Boy in Nigeria.
Yahoo Boys are scam artists who trick online lovers out of money.
The son of a taxi driver and market trader, by 2014 Abbas had moved to Kuala Lumpur; three years later he would move to Dubai.
It was in Dubai that Abbas ramped up his selfies with his fleet of luxury motors, designer clothes and on private jets.
He claimed to be a property developer and was dubbed the Gucci Billionaire.
Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga in Ontario, Canada, was charged separately.
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He pleaded guilty in 2020 to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, prosecutors said.
He was sentenced to nearly 12 years in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $30 million in restitution.
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