Money laundering: Hushpuppi pleads guilty, risks 20 years’ imprisonment

Alleged international fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi, has pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge brought against him by the United States District Court for the Central District Of California.

In a document by the court sighted by The PUNCH on Wednesday, Hushpuppi pleaded to be guilty of money laundering as charged.

The document was signed by Hushpuppi; his lawyer, Loius Shapiro; Acting United States Attorney, Tracy Wilkison, amongst others.

It stated that Hushpuppi risks “20 years’ imprisonment; a 3-year period of supervised release; a fine of $500,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offence”.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the 37-year-old was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 alongside 12 other members of his crew.

The Dubai Police said it discovered that fraud amounting to 1.6 billion Dirham (N168 billion) had been committed by the gang.

No fewer than 1,926,400 people from different parts of the world were also said to have fallen victims to the suspects.

According to the police, 13 luxury cars, estimated at 35 million Dirham (N3.7 billion) were recovered from the house where they were arrested.

The Dubai Police later handed Abbas and his conspirators over to the FBI and they had since been arraigned on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, among others.

Details later… Punch