CrimeNews

Nigerian Fraud Kingpin, Hushpuppi, Extradited to US

The Police in Dubai, Thursday, extradited Nigerian-born cyber thief, Raymond Igbalode Abbas, otherwise known as Hushpuppi, and his partner in fraud, Olalekan Jacob Ponle, popularly known as Woodbery, to the United States of America, USA.

Both international fraudsters were arrested by the Dubai Police in June for defrauding over 1.9 million people, across the world to the tune of N168 billion. Majority of their victims were Americans, reports said.

Hushpuppi nd Woodberry extradicted to US (Photo credit-The Nation)
Hushpuppi nd Woodberry extradicted to US (Photo credit-The Nation)

Confirming their extradition to the US, Thursday, Dubai Police said: “The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray has praised the exceptional efforts exerted by the United Arab Emirate, represented by the Dubai Police General HQ, in combating transnational organised cybercrime including the recent arrest of Raymond Igbalode Abbas, known as “Hushpuppi” and Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka “Woodberry” who were taken down in operation “Fox Hunt 2”.

“Mr Wray also extended his appreciations to Dubai Police for their cooperation in extraditing the wanted criminals, who committed money-laundering and multiple cybercrimes, to the United States.”

A video posted by the Dubai Media Office said the duo’s arrest via an operation codenamed Fox Hunt 2 was the high point of four months of diligent investigations and closing monitoring of their activities on social media.

When the Dubai Police swooped on Hushpuppi and Woodbery, many incriminating documents on a well-planned international fraud worth Dh1.6 billion (N169 billion) were recovered.

The police said the two men allegedly led an “international” online fraud network that was committing crimes outside the UAE, including money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, criminal impersonating, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft.

“The team also seized more than AED 150 million ($40.9 million) in cash, 13 luxury cars with an estimated value of AED 25 million ($6.8 million) obtained from fraud crimes, and confiscated 21 computer devices, 47 smartphones, 15 memory sticks, five hard disks containing 119,580 fraud files as well as addresses of 1,926,400 victims,” director of Dubai CID, Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf said.

The United States Secret Service had, in May, alerted that the  fraudsters were targeting American states and their operations had been traced to Nigeria.

Again, a California-based cyber security firm, Agari, revealed on May 19, that “some if not all” of those who committed the fraud were members of a Nigerian 419 group called Scattered Canary.

 

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