Why Hushpuppi’s sentencing was shifted from Valentine’s Day – US DoJ tells Neusroom
The United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for Central District of California has told Neusroom that the sentencing of Nigeria’s celebrity hacker Ramon Abass Olorunwa ‘Hushpuppi’ earlier scheduled to hold on February 14, 2022, has been shifted.
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 United Arab Emirates, and Los Angeles in the US.
Thom Mrozek, the spokesperson of the USAO for Central District of California, in an email sent to Neusroom on Wednesday night, however, said “the sentencing hearing for Mr. Abbas has been delayed.”
The order for the delay of the sentencing was given after a court sitting on Wednesday, February 2, 2022.
“AT THE REQUEST OF COUNSEL, the Sentencing is continued to July 11, 2022 at 11:00 a.m,” the court order sent to Neusroom read.
Hushpuppi and his attorney Louis Shapiro were not present in court when the order was given by Otis Wright, the District Judge.
This is the fourth time Hushpuppi’s case will be shifted by the court since July 2020 when he was repatriated to the US from Dubai.
If he’s eventually sentenced in July, he would have spent two years in detention.
Hushpuppi is standing trial for multiple global fraud schemes that include collusion with a Canadian co-conspirator and North Korean military hackers – Jon Chang Hyok, 31; Kim Il, 27; and Park Jin Hyok, 36; to pull a $14.7 million cyber-heist on the Bank of Valetta, Malta’s oldest financial institution, on February 13, 2019.
He’s also accused of conniving with one Vincent Chibuzo and a 29-year-old Kenyan, Abdulrahman Juma, to defraud a Qatari businessman of more than $1.1 million.
On April 20, 2021, the DoJ announced that he had pleaded guilty to these crimes.
