Hushpuppi’s case delayed for the fifth time as he marks two years in detention
After spending two years behind bars in the United States, Nigeria’s Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas may spend more time in detention before he finally goes to court for his sentencing, Neusroom gathered.
Thom Mrozek, the spokesperson of the United States Attorney Office (USAO) for Central District of California, in an email sent to Neusroom on Tuesday, June 28, 2022, said Hushpuppi’s sentencing hearing earlier fixed for July 11, 2022, has been delayed.
“AT THE REQUEST OF COUNSEL, the Sentencing is CONTINUED to 9/21/2022 at 1:30 PM before Judge Otis D. Wright II, as to Defendant Ramon Olorunwa Abbas,” Mrozek wrote.
This is the fifth time Hushpuppi’s case will be shifted since he arrived in the U.S on Thursday, July 2, 2020, to face criminal charges alleging he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams, including schemes targeting a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club.
Neusroom had, on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, exclusively reported that Hushpuppi would be sentenced on Valentine’s Day after spending more than 18 months in detention in Dubai, the UAE, and Los Angeles in the US, the hearing was, however, shifted from February 14 to July 11, 2022. It has now been shifted to September.
From records, investigations and exclusive conversations with the U.S Department of Justice in the last two years, Neusroom can confirm that there is a distinction between Hushpuppi’s case and others who have been arrested and convicted in the U.S for fraud.
When another Nigerian Obiwanne ‘Invictus Obi’ Okeke was arrested in August 2019 for wire fraud, his trial and conviction lasted 18 months, but Hushpuppi’s journey is getting much longer.
His case is taking the route of prolonged investigation and interrogation without trial, which is common in the case of terrorist suspects arrested by the U.S government.
The U.S government has a practice of keeping terrorist suspects in indefinite wartime detention without trial. Its Supreme Court empowered it to do so in a 2004 ruling after the 9/11 attack. The practice allows interrogators to scoop information from the suspects to help them understand the operations of terrorist, arrest and prosecute key actors.
Since Hushpuppi’s arrest, three North Korean military hackers – Jon Chang Hyo; Kim Il, and Park Jin Hyok, 36; a Canadian-American Ghaleb Alaumary; a Kenyan Abdulrahman Imraan Juma; and three Nigerians, Yusuf Adeyinka Anifowoshe of Brooklyn, New York, Rukayat Motunraya Fashola of Valley Stream, New York, and Bolatito Tawakalitu Agbabiaka of Linden, New Jersey, who are all alleged to be Hushpuppi’s allies in fraud have all been arrested, while Nigeria’s super cop Abba Kyari was also indicted in Hushpuppi’s guilty plea agreement with the USAO on April 20, 2021.
As his days in detention are prolonged, more suspects will likely be arrested as long as Hushpuppi keeps singing.
Despite being in detention for two years, his Instagram page, where he boasted about his wealth and flaunted his luxurious lifestyle which U.S prosecutors said he funded by laundering illicit proceeds generated by con artists, has grown from 2.5 million followers when he was arrested in June 2020 to 2.8 million as of July 1, 2022.
The page also receives new comments daily, with many hailing him as a hero, while a few others mock him.
