Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, pleaded guilty to multimillion-dollar fraud charges and as part of a plea bargain he entered with the US authorities, he will restitute $1.7 million to some of his victims.
The 37-year-old was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 and subsequently extradited to the United States where he has been facing charges of corruption in Central California.
Court documents said Mr. Abbas admitted to laundering money and orchestrating fraudulent attacks on a Premier League club, an American law firm, a UK law firm, and other schemes as well as carefully recruiting North Korean state sponsored hackers to collaborate his fraudulent schemes. Most of the victims of his fraudulent acts are from the United States. Some of his reported escapades, stole about $40 million from a U.S. law firm, almost conned an unnamed Premier League club of $124 million.
Prior to his arrest, Hushpuppi had flaunted his wealth and luxurious designer lifestyle on social media especially Instagram, where he claimed his source of wealth was from Real Estate.
To avoid a lengthy trial, Mr. Abbas entered a plea deal with the U.S. prosecutors in Central California on July 4, 2021 and it was sealed on July 27, 2021. As part of the deal, Mr Abbas now faces up to 20 years in jail when he is due to be sentenced in the coming weeks. He will also pay about $1.7 million in restitution to some of his victims.
