Juliana Francis
The United Arab Emirates Police,
yesterday, received commendations from the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, after the latter handed over two of the
most wanted cyber criminals, Raymond Igbalode, otherwise known as Hushpuppi and
his partner Olalekan Ponle,
known as Woodberry.
According to the Dubai Police, the Instagram
star was handed over to FBI yesterday, along with Woodberry.
Wray applauded the efforts exerted of
the Dubai in combating transnational organised cybercrime. Hushpuppi and
Woodberry were alleged to have carried out multiple cybercrimes before their
arrest. Hushpuppi was alleged to have defrauded 1,926,400 people from different
parts of the world and scooped 1.6 billion Dirham, equivalent of N168 billion.
Hushpuppi was arrested along with 12
other members of his gang. 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.
Speaking yesterday while receiving the
suspects, Wray said: “I thank the exceptional efforts of Dubai Police in
fighting organised cybercrimes and arresting Hushpuppi and Woodbery.”
The Police recovered 21 computers, 47
smart phones, 15 storage memory devices and five hard disk containing data. 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,” last four months.
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