BEVERLY HILLS, February 20, (THEWILL) – The US’s Department of Justice has said flamboyant Nigerian Instagram influencer, Ramon Abbas, aka “Hushpuppi” laundered slush funds for North Korean internet hackers.
The revelation came to light after Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles opened a case against 37-year-old Ghaleb Alaumary of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada for participating in a money-laundering scheme for the North Korean conspiracy, among other criminal schemes.
Alaumary consented to plead guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering according to the charge contained in a criminal information filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles on November 17, 2020.
During his confession, he fingered Hushpuppi as one of his co-conspirators.
The document read in part: “With respect to the North Korean co-conspirators’ activities, Alaumary organized crews of co-conspirators in the United States and Canada to launder millions of dollars obtained through ATM cash-out operations, including from BankIslami and a bank in India in 2018.
“Alaumary also conspired with Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka ‘Ray Hushpuppi’, and others to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019.
“Last summer, the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles charged Abbas in a separate case, alleging that he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from BEC frauds and other scams.”
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