Hushpuppi caught in $400k fraud case while in US jail – FBI

Notorious internet fraudster, Ramon Abbas, commonly known as Hushpuppi has received fresh charges as United States prosecutors submitted court documents showing that he committed fraud and laundered over $400k while in prison.

An agent, who claims to be working under the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, disclosed this while sharing documents that indicted Hushpuppi.

WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that the United States Department of Justice had said ongoing investigations showed that Hushpuppi allegedly bribed Kyari to arrest one Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, one of his accomplices in Nigeria.

The documents which were presented before the United States District Court of California on Wed 16th March 2022 showed fresh evidence indicting Hushpuppi of committing fraud and money laundering in U.S Federal correctional facility.

The court documents stated that Hushpuppi, while in U.S Federal correctional facility, participated in the purchase and laundering of Economic Impact Payment debit cards fraudulently obtained from stolen data of U.S citizens and residents.

Economic Impact Payments are financial support offered by the US government to U.S residents according to the CARES Act. One of the ways eligible US residents receive their Economic Impact Payments is by debit cards.

The documents presented in court, revealed that the hackers use data of U.S residents to file and obtain Economic Impact Payments debit cards. They sell off these EIP cards in underground marketplaces to other cyber criminals.

United States authorities said that although prisoners have limited access to 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.

A dedicated system was setup for him and his activities were recorded for 7 days.

It was found that Hushpuppi was actively buying EIP debit cards from an underground cyber criminal marketplace called StimulusCard (“https://stimuluscard.com/”). While being recorded, Hushpuppi bought a total of 58 EIP debit cards with a total value of $429,800 on the site and laundered the money through one AJ.