Detained internet fraudster, Ramon Abass aka Hushpuppi, may spend more years in jail as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly filed another charge against him recently, claiming that he perpetrated another $400,000+ internet scam between January to March 2022 while using internet inside a prison facility in the US.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that upon his arrival in the United States on July 3, 2020, after his arrest in Dubai where he lives, he was accused of conspiring to launder ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’.
New evidence was submitted to the United States District Court of California on March 16th, 2022, in a document stating that Hushpuppi allegedly engaged in the acquisition and washing of Economic Impact Payment debit cards obtained unlawfully from stolen data of US individuals and residents.
The FBI’s investigation has revealed that ABBAS, while in a US Federal correctional facility, participated in the purchase of Economic Impact Payment debit cards fraudulently obtained from compromised data of US citizens.”, the document read in part
“Recorded internet activities (reviewed pursuant to a federal search warrant issued in this District) of ABBAS in the US Federal correctional facility, Central District of California, reflect that ABBAS purchased Economic Impact Payments debit cards and laundered the proceeds totaling over $400,000.”
“Payments debit cards daily for the period we recorded him. He purchased a total of 58 Economic Impact Payments debit cards in this period, with a total value of $429,800.”
“19 Of the 58 Economic Impact Payments debit cards, ABBAS chose the virtual card option for 36 EIP cards and he selected the plastic physical card option for 22 EIP cards.”
“Abbas is also accused of committing fraud in Nigeria as he is also wanted by Nigeria’s financial crime police, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.”
On 28th July 2021, Hushpuppi pleaded guilty to money laundering and also exposed a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) in Nigeria, Abba Kyari, as an accomplice in his $1.1 million scam deal.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1982, Hushpuppi had a reputation as a ‘Yahoo boy’, an acronym for a cybercriminal.
