How much money are you willing to spend on designer outfits, luxury cars, A-list friends, and a social media feed curated with the trappings of indelible, gaudy wealth? A few hundred thousand dollars? Or how about 11 years in prison and $1,732,841 in restitution?
That is the sentence that Ramon Abbas, better known as « Billionaire Gucci Master » or @hushpuppi on Instagram, received after pleading guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering. Before his 2020 arrest in Dubai, he had more than 2 million Instagram followers, The Guardian reported.
Don Alway, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, said in a statement that Abbas was « one of the most prolific money launderers in the world. »
« Abbas leveraged his social media platforms – where he amassed a considerable following – to gain notoriety and to brag about the immense wealth he acquired by conducting business email compromise scams, online bank heists and other cyber-enabled fraud that financially ruined scores of victims and provided assistance to the North Korean regime, » Alway said. « This significant sentence is the result of years’ worth of collaboration among law enforcement in multiple countries and should send a clear warning to international fraudsters that the FBI will seek justice for victims, regardless of whether criminals operate within or outside United States borders. »
Abbas, who is Nigerian, wasn’t particularly picky when it came to money laundering. He worked with a Canadian man, according to prosecutors, to predominately launder money using bank cyber-heists and business email compromise. In 2019, he helped launder more than $14 million stolen by North Korean hackers from a bank in Malta. He also helped launder millions of dollars stolen from a British company, a UK football club, a New York-based law firm, and someone in Qatar who wanted a loan to build a school.
According to VICE News, just a year before his capture, Abbas posted the words: « My story is filled with broken pieces, bad decisions and some ugly truths. But it is also filled with a major comeback. » He will be deported to Nigeria after he serves his sentence.
