Metro News
Old habits die hard: Hushpuppi pulls off fresh $400k scam inside California prison
Incarcerated Instagram influencer and scammer, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, is proving fast that old habits are hard to change, even in a place as a prison cell.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has filed a new case against him requesting his arrest warrant for carrying another cyber heist in jail.
FBI filed the new case against Hushpuppi over conspiracy to engage in money laundering of more than $400,000 while being imprisoned in the U.S.
The new evidence was submitted to the United States District Court of California on March 16th, 2022, in a document stating that Hushpuppi allegedly engaged in the acquisition and washing of Economic Impact Payment debit cards obtained unlawfully from stolen data of US individuals and residents.
According to the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the US government provides financial assistance to U.S. citizens who relocate abroad. Debit cards are a method of receiving Economic Impact Payments for qualifying US residents.
To file for and get Economic Impact Payments debit cards, hackers used data from documents produced in court. These EIP cards are sold to other cybercriminals in underground marketplaces.
United States authorities said that although prisoners have limited access to a telephone, video, internet and computer use because of their right to privacy in a court filing, like the rest of the detainees, Hushpuppi was granted access to the computer network as well.
However, between January 28 and March 4, 2022, security authorities at a federal prison in the United States noticed that Hushpuppi was using the internet more often.
They secured an order to record Hushpuppi’s actions after learning that he had been detained for internet-related offences and that the warrant would be used against him.
His activities were tracked over the course of seven days on a system built up just for him.
An underground cybercriminal marketplace was discovered to be selling EIP debit cards to Hushpuppi.
A total of 58 EIP debit cards, worth $429,800, were purchased on the site by Hushpuppi while he was being filmed and laundered the money through one AJ.
Hushpuppi is facing criminal charges in the United States for conspiracy to launder money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm of about $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution, and targeted to steal $124 million from an English football club until his arrest by the Dubai Police in June 2020 and his extradition to the United States.
FBI Hushpuppi
Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers, says the state government will support he families of victims affected by the multiple tanker explosion.
Fubara spoke on Saturday when he visited the scene of the accident alongside Olatunji Disu, commissioner for police in Rivers, and Maximus Nwafor, commissioner for energy.
On Friday night, tankers laden with petroleum products burst into flames on a section of the East-West road in Eleme, Rivers state, leaving an unspecified number of people killed.
The inferno which had also left travellers stranded for hours, engulfed over 50 vehicles, with some bodies found burnt beyond recognition in cars and in a nearby drainage.
The governor directed security agencies to conduct a thorough assessment of the accident to facilitate the provision of aid to families of victims.
“Yesterday around 7-8pm, we got information about a very serious inferno that was caused by a tanker conveying PMS,” he said.
“I got the information through the MD of Indorama and immediately alerted the security agencies. From what we are seeing this morning, it was not a very pleasant case.
“We recorded, from what I am seeing, a huge number of vehicles being destroyed and souls lost.
“I have already asked the security agencies to give us a full brief. So that we can come into the situation fully by seeing how much we can support the families of the bereaved and see how we can cushion the effect of the losses.”
The governor also lamented the deteriorating condition of the Eleme section of the East-West road.
“We all know the situation of this road; it is unfortunate. Most of our people when plying this road do so with caution,” he added.
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