Juliana Francis
Less than a week after the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared Ramon Abass, also known as
Hushpuppi, wanted in relation to several money laundering crimes, the Dubai Police
Force, United Arab Emirates, has released a video showing details of how the Nigerian
Dubai-based suspect was arrested.
The Police recovered 21 computers, 47
smart phones, 15 storage memory devices and five hard disk containing data.
The Police disclosed that Hushpuppi and
his team modus operandi was to create fake pages for existing websites and
redirected victims’ payments to their own accounts.
The gang also specialised in hacking
corporate emails and sending fake messages to clients in order to redirect
financial transfers and bank details to their own accounts.
According to the video, a crack team had
been tracking Hushpuppi and his gang’s activities on social media for four
months. The suspect had repeatedly attributed his stunning wealth to being a successful
businessman, and often displayed tons of money and exotic cars on social media.
Hushpuppi was arrested along with 12
other members of his gang. The Dubai Police disclosed that it discovered
that fraud amounting to 1.6 billion
Dirham, which is equivalent of N168
billion, had been committed by the gang.
The Dubai Police further noted that no
fewer than 1,926,400 people from different parts of the world had fallen prey
to the fraudulent antics of the gang.
The Police mentioned that 13 luxury
cars, estimated at 35 million Dirham, which was equivalent of N3.7 billion were
recovered from the house where they were arrested.
The Dubai police said the operation
leading to the arrests was dubbed “Fox Hunt 2.”
Referring to him as Nigeria’s Most
wanted hacker, EFCC confirmed that he was arrested on June 10 by the INTERPOL
in the United Arab Emirates, and stated that EFCC is engaging with the Federal
Bureau of Investigations (FBI), “in tracing victims of his fraudulent
transactions and other fraudsters having direct involvement with him”.
“The Commission is familiar with grisly
details of his money laundering transactions, involving many high-profile cyber
criminals facing trial in Nigeria”, EFCC said.
Several local cyber criminals with
money-laundering networks connected to him are also being investigated, even as
the INTERPOL expedites plans to extradite him to Nigeria to face multiple fraud
charges.
Hushpuppi recently posted a picture of a
newly acquired 2020 Rolls Royce Cullinan, estimated to be worth about N280
million. He also does regular give-aways and freebies on his Instagram account,
asking followers to inbox their account details to receive the gifts. Up until
last year, his Instagram profile read, ‘the Billionaire Gucci master’ but he
changed it to ‘real estate developer’ after the EFCC arrested one of his
associates, Ismaila Mustapha, also known as Mompha.
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