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A Nigerian national best known by his Instagram handle “Ray Hushpuppi” was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for orchestrating multiple money laundering schemes in and outside of the U.S., according to prosecutors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Tuesday that Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, 40, was sentenced to 135 months in prison. He was originally arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in June 2020 and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering in April 2021.
He has been in U.S. federal custody since his arrest, and his Instagram account where prosecutors said he boasted about his schemes has since been shut down.
“By his own admission, during just an 18-month period the defendant conspired to launder over $300 million,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, per the attorney’s office. “While much of this intended loss did not ultimately materialize, [Abbas’] willingness and ability to participate in large-scale money laundering highlights the seriousness of his criminal conduct.”
With the help of convicted Canadian money launderer Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, prosecutors said, Abbas defrauded people by carrying out bank cyber-heists and business email compromise schemes, where scammers gain unauthorized access to a business email account and trick businesses into wiring them money.
One scheme Abbas admitted to participating in involved stealing more than $14 million from a Maltese bank with the help of North Korean hackers in January 2019. Abbas and Alaumary conspired to launder the stolen money through banks in Romania and Bulgaria, with federal prosecutors alleging that those funds were intended for the North Korean government.
Abbas and Alaumary worked together again in May 2019 to launder millions of British pounds stolen from a U.K. professional soccer club and U.K. company through a bank account in Mexico.
Abbas worked with other conspirators to defraud a person from Qatar who sought a $15 million loan to build a school. The Nigerian national also convinced a New York-based law firm to transfer over $922,000 to a co-conspirator controlled under someone else’s name.
Some of the money Abbas defrauded from the Qatar businessperson was used to buy a $230,000 Richard Mille watch, which he flaunted on his Instagram page at the time.
“Abbas bragged on social media about his lavish lifestyle – a lifestyle funded by his involvement in transnational fraud and money laundering conspiracies targeting victims around the world,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a press release.
Abbas was ordered to pay the amount that was stolen from the law firm back as restitution, as well as pay more than $809,000 to the businessperson in Qatar.
Alaumary, a frequent conspirator with Abbas, was charged separately and pleaded guilty in November 2020 to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Prosecutors said he is also serving a more than 11-year sentence in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $30 million in restitution.
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