Move over Anna Delvey and Simon Leviev — there’s a new fraudster who’s making headlines. Hushpuppi, an infamous influencer who was not shy about flaunting his wealth on social media — wealth allegedly acquired by not-so-legal means — has been sentenced to more than 11 years in jail for laundering tens of millions of dollars for criminal hackers, Mirror UK reports.
The international fraudster, whose real name is Ramon Abbas, called himself a “Real Estate Developer” online. But spoiler alert — that’s not how he was financing his lavish lifestyle.
“Ramon Abbas, aka ‘Hushpuppi,’ targeted both American and international victims, becoming one of the most prolific money launderers in the world,” Don Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said, according to Mirror UK.
Alway said that Abbas “leveraged his social media platforms — where he amassed a considerable following — 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.”
Those funds were spent on lavish items such as a $230,000 Richard Mille RM11-03 watch, which Abbas had transported from New York to Dubai.
One of Abbas’s biggest schemes led him and his fellow fraudsters to cause a crisis in Malta. Payment systems on the island shut down after he attempted to launder €13m ($13 million USD) originally stolen by North Korean hackers from the Maltese Bank of Valletta.
Abbas was arrested in Dubai two years ago, and pleaded guilty to money laundering last year. He admitted to attempting to steal more than $1.1 million from someone who wanted to provide funding for a new school for children in Qatar.
He also fessed up to “several other cyber and business email compromise schemes that cumulatively caused more than $24 million in losses,” the U.S. Justice Department said, according to Mirror UK.
Abbas has been ordered to pay $1,732,841 to two of his victims, and was sentenced to 135 months in jail.
United States Attorney Martin Estrada stressed that the U.S. government is taking the issue of money laundering and business scams very seriously.
“Money laundering and business email compromise scams are a massive international crime problem, and we will continue to work with our law enforcement and international partners to identify and prosecute those involved, wherever they may be,” Estrada said, according to Mirror UK.
