By Uche Amunike
The office of the US Attorney at the Central District of California, has said that the reports about alleged Nigerian-born international fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi fraud news about committing over $400,000 scam, right inside an American prison where he is presently being detained is false.
This information was made public by Director of Media Relations in the court, Thom Mrozek, via email, while responding to an enquiry by the press on Thursday.
Mzorek made it clear that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not file any such allegation against Hushpuppi, adding that Andrew Innocenti who is said to be the FBI special agent that filed fresh charges against Hushpuppi confirmed that he never signed such a document.
His words: ‘After looking at the document excerpted in recent media accounts, the document appears to have been fabricated’.
‘The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, which filed the case against Mr. Abbas, has not filed any such document’.
‘We have checked with the FBI agent who supposedly authored the document, and he confirms it is a fake’, he concluded.
Recall that news of Hushpuppi’s arrest in June 2020 by the Dubai Police in the United Arab Emirates, alongside his gang ended up with them being extradited to the United States for prosecution by the FBI.
Hushpuppi, in a plea agreement document cited by newsmen was to eventually plead guilty to different offences that bordered on internet scam and money laundering, among others.
According to the document, Hushpuppi risked facing 20 years imprisonment, a fine of $500,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss resulting from the offence and a three-year period of supervised release. Above all, news of Hushpuppi being sentenced on July 11, 2022 was made clear by the cops.
Hushpuppi news about contracting the services of the embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, after being threatened allegedly by a ‘co-conspirator’, Chibuzo Vincent, to allegedly expose a $1.1m fraud which was committed against a Qatari businessman, was alleged by Innocenti who said that he had in his possession, voice calls and WhatsApp conversations between Kyari and Hushpuppi and further alleged that the latter paid the police officer N8m or $20,600 for the arrest and detention of Vincent.
Since then, months have passed as both Nigerians and Americans have followed the Hushpuppi fraud news to await the outcome.
The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has however recently allowed the extradition of Kyari to the United States for prosecution even though the case of the ‘super cop’ in the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for alleged narcotics crimes may delay the extradition proceeding.
Several Nigerian media platforms published these false reports on Hushpuppi being involved in fresh fraud allegations from prison and these ended up deceiving many reputable news platforms. It has been expressly debunked by Media Director, Thom Mrozek, to set the records straight.
