New details have emerged on how the FBI tracked down notorious internet fraudster, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi.
According to a document signed by an FBI special agent, the Google account of Abbas, was one of the things that mede it easy for the Bureau to track down the internet celebrity.
Abbas troubles actually started when one member was arrested in October, 2019, shortly after a New York law firm was duped into wiring almost $1 million, investigators obtained a search warrant to go through his iPhone and found messages that blew open the inner workings of the group.
In a document signed by Andrew Innocenti, a special agent of the FBI, three people, Abbas, co-conspirator 1, and co-conspirator 2 — were accused of participating in fraudulent schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to the FBI, an analysis of the iPhone and online account belonging to co-conspirator 1 showed that messages were exchanged with Hushpuppi, requesting accounts into which funds realised from the money laundering schemes could be sent to.
“Based on records from Instagram received in June 2020, the Instagram account was subscribed with the name “RAY,” the email address, rayhushpuppi@gmail.com, and the verified phone number +971502818689 (“Phone Number 2”),” the document read.
“The Instagram account was created on October 10, 2012, and recent account history from 2020 showed logins from Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses located in the U.A.E.2 (ABBAS lives in the U.A.E., based on information from his email and social media accounts, financial records, and internet research.
“Based on subscriber records from Snap Inc., the Snapchat account “Hushpuppi5” used the phone number +971565505984 (“Phone Number 3”) and the email address rayhushpuppi@gmail.com (i.e., the same email as the Instagram account).
“The Snapchat account used the display name “The Billionaire Gucci Master!!!,” which was the same Snapchat contact name saved in Coconspirator 1’s phone for the Snapchat account “Hushpuppi5.”
The document also gave details of records from Apple Inc., as well as his Gmail account, which showed invoices, tenancy contract, flight itinerary, Dubai visa, a Nigerian passport, among other documents all directly linked to Abbas.
Details of a conversation between the suspects were also revealed.
“On February 12, 2019, Co-conspirator 1 told ABBAS: “Wire is completed… We did it [500k euros]… Should be on ur side by now.”
In the conversation that followed, Co-conspirator 1 reportedly told Abbas that there was only one wire to the account in Romania. “Sender name : tipico group limited. Country : [Foreign Financial Institution Country] Amount :
500k euro…
“It’s there now my other crew confirmed it’s there as well.”
Later, while trying to figure out whether the wire had been successful, Co-conspirator 1 was said to have added: “They did me 3 wires ( 2 to euro 1 to USA )… Bank it came from is :[Foreign Financial Institution].
The document added that Abbas said: “Brother, we still have access and they didn’t realize , we gonna shoot again tomoro am.”
Abbas had allegedly tricked one of the law firm’s paralegals into wiring $922,857, intended for a client’s real estate refinancing, to a Chase Bank account controlled by Abbas. The paralegal emailed a Citizens Bank email address to verify instructions for the wire transfer but it was a spoof email address set up by Abbas.
About half the amount was instantly wired to a Canadian bank account and images of the wire transfer were shared between the group.
“Did the big hit?” one group member texted, according to excerpts in the affidavit. “Yessir,” another replied.
In another instance, a foreign bank was defrauded $14.7 million in Feb. 2019 when the group gained access to the bank’s computer network and sent fake SWIFT messages—utilizing software used by financial institutions to sends payment orders to each other.
One co-conspirator texted Abbas to ask if he had any bank accounts that could take large amounts of the stolen money. Abbas responded with the details for Romanian, Bulgarian and U.S. bank accounts.
In one text message, the co-conspirator wrote: “my guy also deleted history logs at the bank so they won’t even c the transaction.”
But the following day, the cyber-heist hit the news and the transfers didn’t reach Abbas’ Romanian account.
“Today they noticed and pressed a recall on it , it might show and block or never show,” the co-conspirator texted Abbas. “Look it hit the news.”
Abbas replied: “damn.”
The pair appeared undeterred. “Next one is in few weeks will let U know when it’s ready. to bad they caught on or it would been a nice payout,” he wrote to Abbas.
In March, the group discussed how they could launder £100 million (about $124 million) from an unnamed English Premier League Club but it’s not clear what happened to the money.
At one point, the group were making $1 million to $5 million through a scam once or twice a week.
“This was a challenging case, one that spanned international boundaries, traditional financial systems, and the digital sphere,” said Jesse Baker, a Secret Service agent in the Los Angles Field Office.
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai in June but later extradited to the US where he has been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering before a US court.
He could spend up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Leave a Reply