Wire fraud, money laundering and four other charges will be dismissed if Hushpuppi abides by plea agreement – DoJ tells Neusroom
The United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for Central District of California has said it may dismiss some of the charges against a Nigerian fraud suspect Abass ‘Hushpuppi’ Ramon if he abides by his plea agreement.
The USAO confirmed this in an email correspondence with Neusroom on Thursday, July 29, 2021.
The charges likely to be dropped include: wire fraud, conspiracy to engage in money laundering, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and bank fraud.
Hushpuppi, who was arrested in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in June 2020, is being held in Los Angeles over allegations he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from Business Email Compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams.
Court documents sent to Neusroom by the DoJ on Wednesday night revealed that Hushpuppi connived with one Vincent Chibuzo and a 29-year-old Kenyan Abdulrahman Juma to defraud a Qatari businessman of more than $1.1 million.
The businessman was seeking lenders to fund a new children’s school in Qatar when he fell victim to Hushpuppi’s alleged global fraud scheme.
He was accused of using accomplices to launder the illicit funds in banks all over the world and using $230,000 (proceeds from the fraud) to purchase a luxury Richard Mille RM11-03 watch. He posted a photo of himself on Instagram wearing the watch, with the hashtag “#Rm1103,” on January 13, 2020.
Some of his alleged accomplices Juma of Kenya, Rukayat Motunraya Fashola and Bolatito Tawakalitu Agbabiaka of the U.S have been arrested. Others, Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Nigeria and Vincent Kelly Chibuzo who are in Nigeria are yet to be arrested.
Court documents said Hushpuppi pleaded guilty to this crime on April 20, 2021, and according to his plea agreement with the USAO, prosecutors have “agreed to not further criminally prosecute defendant for conspiracy to engage in money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and bank fraud, wire fraud; bank fraud, money laundering; engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity); aggravated identity theft.”
Spokesperson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Thom Mrozek, however, told Neusroom in an email that “Those charges are technically still pending.”
He added: “If Abbas abides by the terms of his plea agreement, we have agreed to dismiss those additional charges that are contained in the “information” when the case concludes, which would be after his sentencing.”
If convicted, he may be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison, the document says.
The Court document also revealed that “if the defendant is not a United States citizen, the conviction in this case makes it practically inevitable and a virtual certainty that the defendant will be removed or deported from the United States. Defendant may also be denied United States citizenship and admission to the United States in the future.”
The DoJ Spox confirmed to Neusroom that he may likely be deported if convicted.
Asked if the USAO is working with Nigerian authorities to arrest and prosecute Hushpuppi’s allies in Nigeria including DCP Abba Kyari, the DoJ spokesperson said “I will not offer any comment on law enforcement activities in Nigeria.”
Hushpuppi’s trial has been moved three times since his arrest in June 2020. It was moved from October 2020 to May 4, 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. It was later moved to Tuesday, July 27, 2021, but cancelled. No reason was given for the recent cancellation, and Mrozek said he could not confirm when the trial would commence.
Hushpuppi may still be far from a court trial as it appears prosecutors are keeping him in detention to get more information from him that will enable them to arrest other accomplices in the U.S, Nigeria and other parts of the world.
Since his arrest, some of his suspected accomplices have been arrested in Kenya and South Korea and there are likely more suspects to be arrested.
