Ramon Abbas, 40, also was ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7 million in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. On Instagram, he dropped the "Billionaire Gucci Master" moniker for "Real Estate Developer" about eight months before his arrest and subsequent transfer to the US to stand trial. "But if you look at the bank accounts that police have traced, they all belong to the records obtained by the police in their raids [on Hushpuppi's home in Dubai].". His father was a taxi driver. No comments. The rise and fall of Hushpuppi the social media influencer and global money-launderer. The complaint against him says one Chicago-based company "was defrauded into sending wire transfers totalling $15.2m". You can unsubscribe whenever you want. Detectives seized more than 150 million dirham (about $40 million) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth Dh 25 million ($7M), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, five external hard drives and 800,000 emails of potential victims alongside suitcases full of cash. [37] The study concludes that colonial legacies contributed to the North-South divide regarding online fraud patterns in Nigeria. I've never heard of anything like that. We contacted Instagram to ask why his account was still open. We cannot say with 100% certainty that Hushpuppi is behind it, Mr Almazar says. One UK victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, says he lost 500,000, has been forced to leave the UAE - and is himself facing criminal proceedings in Dubai because of the debt he has incurred as a result of the fraud. His social media posts showed him living a life of luxury, complete with private jets, ultra-expensive cars and high-end clothes and watches. Between December 2019 and February 2020, Abbas and a gang of alleged middlemen in Kenya, Nigeria and the US groomed and conned the victim out of more than a million dollars. The BBC has used newly available court documents to uncover the man behind cyber heists that have cost his victims millions, from his humble beginnings as a Yahoo Boy hustler in Nigeria to a so-called Billionaire Gucci Master living a life of luxury in Dubai before his arrest last year. We will not share your email address with any third parties. Notorious and disgraced Internet fraudster, Olalekan Jacob Ponle, also It is alleged that Mr Kyari then falsely arrested and detained the middleman for a month in a squalid Nigerian cell. At the time, Dubai police said they recovered $40m (32m) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth $6.8m, 21 computers, 47 smartphones and the addresses of nearly two million alleged victims. The Latest. "Authorities say, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, perfected a simple internet scam and laundered millions of dollars. But everyone knew the source of his mysterious wealth - cybercrime; he was a "Yahoo", Seye says. The accounts clerk is fooled into thinking it is a legitimate request from the supplier - and, with a single click of a mouse, vast sums of money are lost. "But if you look at the bank accounts that police have traced, they all belong to the records obtained by the police in their raids [on Hushpuppi's home in Dubai].". In May 2019, Abbas was tasked with setting up a bank account in Mexico. Terrifyingly simple, BEC works by intercepting payments via fake emails that appear to come from an address that is almost exactly the same as the supplier's. A notorious Instagram influencer from Nigeria has been jailed for more than 11 years in the US for his role in an international fraud syndicate. The accounts clerk is fooled into thinking it is a legitimate request from the supplier and, with a single click of a mouse, vast sums of money are lost. Tweets and reactions: revealing the geographies of cybercrime perpetrators and the North-South divide. Marshals Service transport Hushpuppi to Los Angeles wia im trial go start. Instagram celebrity known as Ray Hushpuppi has been charged for stealing more than $1.1 million in an elaborate scam in which he faked the financing of a Qatari school. Some are hesitant to admit what has happened.. Local driver Seye told the BBC that he remembered Abbas as a young boy working alongside his mother in the Olojojo market. Hushpuppi Ray Hushpuppi was already popular on Instagram for his luxurious lifestyle documented exhaustively on his page but he has gained another 100,000 followers since his dramatic arrest. "We cannot say with 100% certainty that Hushpuppi is behind it," Mr Almazar says. "But if you look at the bank accounts that police have traced, they all belong to the records obtained by the police in their raids [on Hushpuppi's home in Dubai]." It was to receive 100m from a Premier League Football Club, and 200m from a UK firm. Mr Almazar says shame prevents many more of Hushpuppi's victims coming forward. Read about our approach to external linking. Hushpuppi: the Instagram influencer and international fraudster - BBC Africa BBC News Africa 1.12M subscribers Subscribe 9.2K 984K views 1 year ago NIGERIA He represents around 25 people - including eight UK citizens - in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), all of whom believe they are victims of one of Hushpuppi's BEC scams. In May 2019, Abbas was tasked with setting up a bank account in Mexico. It is the latest high-profile fraud case involving a Nigerian national in the United States but his lawyer says the US had no authority to transport him from Dubai. But soon, the cracks between the gang started to show. "The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master," retrieved from: BBC News (2021).Hushpuppi: the Instagram influencer and international fraudster, retrieved from: "He flaunted private jets and luxury cars on Instagram. BBC Lazarus, S., & Button, M. (2022). They then appeared in a Chicago court on 3 July. Click here to sign-in and subscribe via a link sent to your email. He has previously denied having any criminal involvement with Abbas and has not responded to the BBCs requests for comment. The affidavit claims that Mr Abbas conspired to launder $14.7m (11.7m) stolen in a cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution in February 2019. His family are still in the UAE. I went to Nigeria to meet the man who scammed me, AI chatbots 'may soon be more intelligent than us', Russia troop deaths hit 20,000 in five months - US, Palestinian hunger striker dies in Israel prison, The 17 most eye-catching looks at the Met Gala, The burden of being cricket legend Tendulkar's son, 'My wife and six children joined Kenya starvation cult', On board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry. Ramon Abbas - known to his 2.5 million Instagram followers as Hushpuppi - is considered by the FBI to be one of the world's most high-profile fraudsters and faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years in the US after pleading guilty to money laundering. US Department of Justice dismiss di report on Thursday wen dem react to di viral tori. WebThe Latest news in Nigeria and world news. A spokesman for the US Advantageous comparison: using Twitter responses to understand similarities between cybercriminals (Yahoo Boys) and politicians (Yahoo men). The bank said it managed to recover 10m euros. 'Gucci billionaire' influencer in plot to scam Premier League club VideoOn board the worlds last surviving turntable ferry, I didnt think make-up was made for black girls, Why there is serious money in kitchen fumes. Their foreign suppliers did not receive the money Were talking about thousands of euros..
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