How Hushpuppi Almost Defrauded English Premier League Club of $124M

United States authorities, Friday, said an unnamed English Premier League club was almost a victim of the Nigerian fraudster Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.

The US Department of Justice said the scammer will face criminal charges after evidences revealed that he conspired to launder millions of dollars, including scams targeting a U.S law firm, an unnamed English Premier League Football club and a foreign bank.

The statement released by the Department of Justice reads: “Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100 million (approximately $124 million) from an English Premier League soccer club, the complaint alleges.”

Hushpuppi and his gang of 11, that included one Olalekan Jacob Ponle, also known as Woodberry, were rounded up and arrested by the Dubai police earlier in June.

The notorious gang was responsible for Dh1.6 billion (about N169 billion) fraud involving over 1.9 million victims.

Items worth N15.845 billion (Dh 150 million) were also seized.

More than 13 luxury cars worth N2. 640 billion (Dh 25 million), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, five external hard drives and 800, 000 emails of potential victims were also recovered from the gang.

In an operation with the code name; Fox Hunt 2, the gang was arrested after four months of covert investigations, during which their social media activities were monitored.

The Dubai Police said Hushpuppi and Woodberry were extradited to the United States this week to face charges of money laundering. A maximum of 20 years in a federal prison is guaranteed if they are convicted.