Hush Puppies is an American internationally marketed brand of contemporary, casual footwear for men, women and children. The shoes have been described as “the classic American brushed-suede shoes with the lightweight crepe sole”.
But Hushpuppi is a Nigerian born and Dubai based Instagram celebrity, whose stock in trade is display of affluent on social media, presently answering for his numerous crimes of internet fraud in the United States of America.
Until recently, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas a.k.a. “Ray Hushpuppi”, was an icon and model to so many young internet fraudsters and wannabes before the long arm of law caught up with him.
“If convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, Abbas would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison,” US Department of Justice said in a statement on Friday.
FBI’s Special Agent Andrew John Innocenti said in a criminal complaint filed before the United States District Court for the Central District of California that “beginning no later than October 15, 2019, and continuing through at least October 17, 2019, in the county of Los Angeles, in the Central District of California, and elsewhere, the defendant conspired to launder proceeds fraudulently obtained from a law firm.”
Hushpuppi was arrested in a Dubai hotel in June and was extradited to US on Wednesday.
DoJ said he arrived in Chicago on Thursday evening and made his initial U.S. court appearance on Friday morning in Chicago.According to the criminal complaint filed on June 25 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles against him, it was alleged that Hushpuppi and others committed a BEC scheme that defrauded a client of a New York-based law firm out of approximately $922,857 in October 2019.
Hushpuppi and co-conspirators allegedly “tricked one of the law firm’s paralegals into wiring money intended for the client’s real estate refinancing to a bank account that was controlled by Abbas and the co-conspirators,” DoJ statement said.
It said schemes also targeted a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club.
“The affidavit also alleges that Abbas conspired to launder funds stolen in a $14.7 million cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution in February 2019, in which the stolen money was sent to bank accounts around the world.
Abbas allegedly provided a co-conspirator with two bank accounts in Europe that Abbas anticipated each would receive €5 million (about $5.6 million) of the fraudulently obtained funds.”
“Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premier League soccer club, the complaint alleges.”
“This was a challenging case, one that spanned international boundaries, traditional financial systems and the digital sphere,” said Jesse Baker, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service, Los Angles Field Office.
Ray Abbas came to national consciousness when he blew N11 million on drinks at the popular Quilox Nite Club owned by Shina Peller, now a member of the House of Representatives. From then on, he never looked back nor shied away in ensuring he stayed glued to ‘naija’ memory as the happening guy.
Hushpuppi was the go-to guy to enjoy to the fullest the Dubai nightlife for many Nigerian socialites, politicians, and celebrities. He made it rain with expensive champagnes, cognacs and was always in company of the finest species of the womenfolk flown from all over the world whenever he hit the club either in Lagos or Dubai or anywhere in the world.
From a young man who used to hawk second-hand clothes all over mainland Lagos to a jet-setting King of designer apparels, his relocation to Dubai many years back opened him up to a higher level of social exploration.
If convicted, the 36yr old may be gone for a long time, signalling an end to the reign of a young man whose insatiable appetite for luxury living and source of unhushable wealth remains the stuff of legend in contemporary Nigeria.
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