It is no longer news that the world renowned internet fraudster, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a.k.a. “Ray Hushpuppi”, had been arrested in company of 11 other members of his gangs and facing numerous criminal charges in the United States, after he was extradited from Dubai by officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I).
The new information reaching Freelanews stated that Hushpuppi has decided to contract the legal services of Mark. J. Geragos, a famous American lawyer who earlier represented high-brow celebrities like Micheal Jackson, Winona Ryder, Chris Brown, Colin Kaepernick and Scott Peterson for defense in a Los Angeles court battle.
According to an investigation by an online newspaper, Nigeria Standard, from inner circle of the suspect showed that Ramon is not leaving anything to chance as he was ready to pay any amount in any digit no matter how much to ensure a vigorous defense in the court.
He believed that Geragos may help him, among other things, wriggle out of the multimillion dollar scam, see to it he gets lighter jail sentence not up to 20 years, especially when he is willing to cooperate with officials of United States Department of Justice to help track similar internet crimes around the world for the government.
Corroborating this view, Samklef, a music producer, singer and one of Hushpuppi’s inner circle friends, confirmed the up-coming legal firework plan on Instagram, saying:
This movie go sweet pass Netflix… he might not even spend all his time.. he will work with the government and regain his freedom. Will be giving u guys update. #samklefblogginaire.
For the record, United States Department of Justice revealed that Hushpuppi was a Dubai resident who flaunted his extravagant lifestyle on social media. He arrived in the United States to face criminal charges alleging he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams, including schemes targeting a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club.
He made his initial U.S. court appearance recently in Chicago, and he is expected to be transferred to Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
Abbas was arrested last month by UAE law enforcement officials. FBI special agents earlier this week obtained custody of Abbas and brought him to the United States to face a charge of conspiring to engage in money laundering that is alleged in a criminal complaint filed on June 25 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
If convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, Abbas would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anil J. Antony and Joseph B. Woodring of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance in this matter.
The F.B.I is also investigating how Hushpuppi and the group hacked into the website of Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S) where millions of dollars meant for Americans for Covid-19 palliative and Unemployment insurance were stolen.
Meanwhile, the Dubai Government confiscate the suspect’s magnificent mansions (10 buildings), 20 customized automobile vehicles 2021 model, seized over 150 million dirham (30 million pounds) in cash; 100 Gucci perfume (colon) and 50 designers’ wristwatches.
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