An affidavit filled at the US Department of Justice, California, has revealed that alleged Nigerian fraudster Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi and his team attempted to defraud a British football club side to the tune of $124m.
Hushpuppi was arrested last month by United Arab Emirates (UAE) law enforcement officials over alleged multi-cyber crimes and money laundering.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents earlier this week obtained custody of Abbas and took him to the US to face a charge of conspiring to engage in money laundering that is alleged in a criminal complaint filed on June 25 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.
The Nigerian made his first appearance in a US court on Thursday in Chicago after being expelled from the UAE.
He is expected to be transferred to Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
And another revelation has emerged about how Hushpuppi almost scammed a Premier League side.
“Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premier League soccer club, the complaint alleges,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit also alleges that Abbas and others committed a BEC scheme that defrauded a client of a New York-based law firm out of approximately $922,857 in October 2019. Abbas and co-conspirators allegedly tricked one of the law firm’s paralegals into wiring money intended for the client’s real estate refinancing to a bank account that was controlled by Abbas and the co-conspirators.
The affidavit added that Abbas conspired to launder funds stolen in a $14.7 million cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution in February 2019, in which the stolen money was sent to bank accounts around the world. Abbas allegedly provided a co-conspirator with two bank accounts in Europe that Abbas anticipated each would receive €5 million (about $5.6 million) of the fraudulently obtained funds.
If convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, the US Justice department said Abbas would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
