After four postponements, U.S court sentences ‘Hushpuppi’ to 11yrs in prison

United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles has finally sentenced Nigerian internet fraudster and social media influencer, Ramon Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, to 11 years in prison after four postponements.

Abbas was initially scheduled to be sentenced after over one year of trial on February 14, this year and then shifted to July 11, which was further confirmed to be September 21 and later November 3.

Abbas has been in prison custody since his arrest in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by a combined Interpol team and local police and extradited to the United States in June 2020 for trial.

In July 2021, Abbas pleaded guilty to multimillion-dollar fraud charges as part of a plea bargain he entered with the U.S. authorities.

Abbas was arrested in June 2020 over an extensive fraud scheme that has defrauded victims of their money in the U.S, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and other countries. He was subsequently charged with fraud and money laundering, multiple counts of hacking, impersonation, scamming, banking fraud, and identity theft.

Abbas pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

Abbas’ arrest and trial also implicated some high-ranking Nigerian police officers, including the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police and a member of the Inspector General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team in the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, Mr Abba Kyari, along with four others.

Kyari is alleged to have demanded or received a bribe from Abbas from a $1.1million cybercrimes loot.

Kyari is facing extradition to the U.S to face trial, a move said to have caused the delay in the sentencing of Abbas.

Following the sentence, Ramon Abbas will now spend only nine years in prison as he had already spent two years in US prison custody.

Prosecutors had opposed delaying the sentencing any further than September 21, arguing that Abbas and his lawyers had prior knowledge of all related matters in the case and were only out to delay and frustrate the judicial process.

U.S Judge, Otis. D Wright had rejected a letter written by Abbas over non-compliance with court rules.

The court documents filed before the United States District Court for the Central District Of California on Monday, however, showed that the judge struck out Abbas’s attempt to push for a lighter sentence.

“ORDER by Judge Otis D. Wright, II: the following document(s) be STRICKEN for failure to comply with the Local Rules, General Order and/or the Courts Case Management Order: Sentencing Letter[86] filed by Defendant Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, for the following reasons: Letters ARE NOT ALLOWED for filing pursuant to local rule 83-2.11. The Court reminds counsel to review ALL local rules before e-filing in corrected documents. (lc) Modified on 9/19/2022 (lc),” Court filings.

Abbas had written personally to presiding judge Otis D. Wright and asserted that he only made $300,000 from his involvement in the crimes he has been tried for.

In the handwritten letter, Mr Abbas noted his humble beginnings as a salesman, apologised to the federal judge for his crimes, and declared that he would use his personal funds to pay the victims.

“Your honour, I totally recognise the seriousness of my offence, and no amount of sorry can write my wrong in the hearts of the victims, and this is why I have decided to use my personal money to offset all of the entire $1,700,000 restitution even though I only benefited a fraction of $300,000,” Abbas wrote.

Lead prosecutor Khaldoun Shobaki argued that Abbas should also be compelled to pay $1.7 million in restitution, $500,000 in fines and $100 in administrative fees.

Louis Shapiro, the lawyer to Abbas, admonished the prosecutors in a filing made for deploying heartless and underhand tactics in their quest to land his client in prison, further arguing that the Nigerian was poorly treated by the prosecutors and describes the U.S government’s sentencing request as ‘unreasonable.’

Counsel to the convicted fraudster argued that the United States is ‘trying to sensationalize Abbas into something that he is not.’

It would be recalled that in September, this year, U.S prosecutors had asked a federal judge to sentence Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas to 11 years in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in the multinational conspiracy that earned him millions of dollars between 2019 and 2020.

American attorneys led by Khaldoun Shobaki in the U.S. Central District of California in Los Angeles, argued that Abbas should also be asked to pay $1.7 million in restitution; $500, 000in fines and $100 in administrative fees, per recommendations submitted ahead of his earlier planned but postponed sentencing on September 21.

The development came more than two years after the infamous Internet fraud ringleader was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 for driving multiple schemes that targeted victims in Europe and the United States.

He pleaded guilty in April 2021 after prosecutors discovered his involvement in a separate conspiracy to defraud a Qatari businessperson, who lost $810, 000 in the process of trying to obtain an elusive loan to set up an international school. .

The prosecutors argued that their sentencing recommendations were appropriate considering the gravity of Abbas’ crimes.

The government said one of Abbas’ co-conspirators Ghaleb Alaumary was sentenced to 140 years in jail for violating the same set of criminal codes.

“By his own admission, during just an 18-month period defendant conspired to launder over $300 million,” the prosecutors said.

The U.S government argued Abbas’ criminal path was premeditated, even though he had a clear chance to choose a rewarding career as a law-abiding citizen.

Abbas’ sentencing, the government argued, was reduced because ‘he cooperated with detectives on our criminal cases under investigation and prosecution in American courts.’