Ray Hushpuppi, a Nigerian social media influencer who flaunted a lavish lifestyle fueled by his efforts to launder millions of stolen dollars, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison on Monday in Los Angeles.
According to a statement from the US Department of Justice, Ramon Abbas, 40, was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7 million in restitution to two fraud victims.
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According to Don Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, Abbas was “one of the most prolific money launderers in the world.”
Prosecutors allege that Abbas and a Canadian man laundered money from a variety of online crimes, including bank cyberheists and business email compromise, or BEC, a common crime in which crooks hack into email accounts, pretend to be someone they are not, and trick victims into wiring money where it does not belong.
According to prosecutors, he assisted in the laundering of $14.7 million stolen by North Korean hackers from a bank in Malta in 2019, by routing the funds through banks in Romania and Bulgaria.
He also assisted in laundering millions of pounds stolen from a British company and a professional soccer club in the United Kingdom. He convinced a New York-based law firm to transfer nearly $923,000 to a criminal account.
And, he admitted in a plea agreement that he assisted in defrauding someone in Qatar seeking a $15 million loan to build a school, according to federal prosecutors.
Abbas was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison on Monday and ordered to pay $922,857 in restitution to the law firm and $809,983 to the victim in Qatar.
“By his own admission, during just an 18-month period defendant conspired to launder over $300 million,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum, although they said much of the intended loss “did not ultimately materialize.”
Abbas, also known as “Ray Hushpuppi,” had over 2 million Instagram followers before being arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2020.
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His social media posts depicted a life of luxury, complete with private jets, ultra-expensive cars, and designer clothes and watches.
“I hope someday I will be inspiring more young people to join me on this path,” Abbas wrote on Instagram. Abbas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in money laundering in April 2021.
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