A Nigerian social media star, known for flaunting a luxurious lifestyle to millions of his followers on Instagram, has appeared in court in the US charged with running a global fraud operation, including targeting a Premier League soccer club, a bank and a US law firm.
Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a 37-year-old known as “Ray Hushpuppi” who claims to run a real-estate business, is alleged to have conspired to launder hundreds of millions of US dollars through business e-mail compromise frauds and other scams, the US Department of Justice said.
A months-long investigation by the FBI led to his arrest last month by authorities in the United Arab Emirates, where Abbas was a resident.
In a video published online by Dubai police, officers working in “Operation Fox Hunt 2” stormed into Abbas’ home as he slept and arrested him, in one of a series of coordinated raids against him and other co-conspirators.
FBI special agents obtained custody of Abbas and took him to Chicago, where he appeared in court on Friday morning, the department said.
In hundreds of Instagram posts in the past few years, the popular Nigerian national has showcased an opulent lifestyle to more than 2.4 million followers, posing in designer clothes and watches, luxury cars and chartered jets.
Investigators were able to track his movements by following his posts, the department said.
“The FBI’s investigation has revealed that Abbas finances this opulent lifestyle through crime,” the agency said.
Cyberfraud has been increasingly targeted by Nigerian authorities in the past few years, yet remains a major challenge.
Abbas is prominent among a cohort of famous social media stars celebrated in Nigerian popular culture, despite being long suspected of links to fraud networks.
The networks, like many criminal fraud groups around the world, have prolifically used business e-mail compromise schemes, deceiving companies into making money transfers.
Abbas and others “conspired to launder ￡100 million [US$125 million] from an English Premier League soccer club,” the department said.
The club was not named by the agency.
Abbas is also accused of laundering US$14.7 million stolen in a cyberheist from an unnamed bank in February last year, sending the money to bank accounts around the world.
If convicted, Abbas could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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