In a multinational crime investigation, US officials say a Nigerian influencer, with the help of a Canadian, aided North Korean hackers to launder money stolen from a Maltese bank.
New details have emerged about the case against Instagram influencer, Ramon Abbas, fondly referred to as Hushpuppi.
According to the United States of America’s Department of Justice, Hushpuppi laundered money for North Korean hackers.
The revelation was made known when federal prosecutors in Los Angeles unsealed a case against one Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, for his role as a money launderer for the North Korean conspiracy, among other criminal schemes.
Alaumary agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering, a charge contained in criminal information filed in the United States District Court in Los Angeles on November 17, 2020.
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David Dawkins, Culled from Forbes
New details have emerged about the case against Instagram influencer Ramon Abbas, who wowed the internet with pictures of his clothes, cars, money and lifestyle between 2012 and 2020. In July, Abbas was charged by the U.S. Attorneyâs Office in Los Angeles with conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from âbusiness email compromiseâ (BEC) frauds and other scams. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice shed more light on one of those scams: working with North Korean hackers to launder funds stolen from a Maltese bank.
According to a statement released by the Justice Department, Abbas took part in a âNorth Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019.â In a July statement, the Justice Department referred to the attack as âa $14.7 million cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution.â Both the date and amount match that of the attack on Maltaâs Bank of Valletta in