You may have heard of “Hushpuppi”, an Instagram influencer, but what you probably don't know is that he was just sentenced to 11 years in prison for conspiracy to launder money from BEC scams.
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The real name of the 40-year-old Nigerian is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas and he was ordered to pay compensation of 1.732.841 dollars to two verified victims, a law firm in the USA and a businessman in Qatar.
Abbas admitted to officials of the US Department of Justice that, over a period of 18 months between 2019 and 2022, he conspired to launder more than 300 million dollars – although not all the scams were successful.
“Hushpuppi”, targeted both Americans and individuals of other nationalities, carrying out one of the most prolific dirty money laundering operations in the world”, said Don Alway, senior deputy director of the FBI in Los Angeles.
In some cases, the influencer offered his services to North Korean hackers who were trying to rob European banks.
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Abbas generated income, which he then channeled into creating a wealthy lifestyle on Instagram. This, in turn, gave him influencer status and helped him launch social engineering against future targets.
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 and pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in April 2021.
The scams of Abbas, described below, are depicted in the DoJ announcement:
- January 2019 – offered to launder $14.7 million stolen by North Korean hackers in a Maltese cyberattack, routing the amount through accounts in Romania and Bulgaria.
- May 2019 – laundered millions of pounds stolen from a professional football club in the United Kingdom, using Mexican bank accounts.
- October 2019 – tricked a New York- based law firm into sending $922,857 to an account controlled by an associate.
Abbas defrauded many people in various ways, one of which was promising multi-million dollar loans to Qatari businessmen and only granting the money after they paid him outrageous “processing fees.” For example, he tricked one man into paying $330,000 for a loan that never materialized.
Abbas's accomplice in many of the above scams, Ghaled Alaumary, pleaded guilty to money laundering crimes in November 2020 and is currently serving a 140-month prison sentence.
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Alaumary was ordered to pay over $30,000,000 in compensation, because he was the primary recipient of the stolen funds, which means he had a more central role in the networks.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
