Influencer Hushpuppi Jailed After Trying To Steal £100m From Premier League Club

An Instagram influencer who attempted to rob a Premier League soccer team of £100 million has been sentenced to prison.

Ramon Abbas, also known online as Ray Hushpuppi, flaunted an opulent lifestyle supported by global fraud on social media.

Don Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, described the Nigerian as "one of the most prolific money launderers in the world," and he was given a term of more than 11 years in a US prison.

Credit: Instagram/Hushpuppi

Prosecutors claim that in May 2019, he attempted to steal £100 million ($115 million) from an unnamed Premier League team, according to Sky News.

He assisted in laundering £12.8 million ($14.7 million) that North Korean hackers had taken from a bank in Malta by passing the funds through banks in Romania and Bulgaria.

Federal prosecutors claim that he allegedly convinced a New York law firm to transfer almost £806,000 ($930,000) to a criminal account and admitted in a plea deal that he assisted in defrauding a person in Qatar who sought a £13 million ($15 million) loan to build a school.

Credit: Instagram/Hushpuppi

The influencer posted a number of "flexing" videos and flaunted his wealth to his 2.8 million Instagram followers.

His social media photos displayed him leading a lavish lifestyle that included private jets, expensive cars, designer clothing, and watches.

"I hope someday I will be inspiring more young people to join me on this path," read one Instagram post by Abbas.

However, this life came to an end when he was detained in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in June 2020.

Alway said: "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."

Abbas was given a 135-month prison term on Monday (7 November), as well as an order to pay the legal company $922,857 (£800,347) in damages and the victim in Qatar $809,983 (£706,000).

Prosecutors stated in a sentencing brief that the defendant "by his own admission, during just an 18-month period, conspired to launder almost $300 million (£262 million)," although they added that much of the anticipated loss "did not ultimately materialize."

Abbas and a Canadian man, according to the prosecution, are accused of laundering proceeds from a variety of online crimes, including bank cyber heists and business email compromise (BEC), a common crime in which perpetrators hack into email accounts, pose as someone they are not, and trick victims into wiring money to the wrong places.

A separate charge was brought against Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

According to the prosecution, he admitted guilt to one count of conspiring to participate in money laundering in 2020.

He received a sentence of almost 12 years in federal prison and was mandated to make restitution totaling more than $30 million (£26.2 million).