Hushpuppi conspired with North Korean military hackers to launder a cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in Feb 2019, US prosecutors have said.
The detained Nigerian Instagram celebrity whose real name is Ramon Abbas is already standing trial over allegations he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles unsealed a case accusing Hushpuppi of partnering with one Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist.
The two suspects, alongside others, participated in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to conduct a series of cyberattacks, to steal and extort more than $1.3b of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies, according to a press release from the US Justice Department.
Alaumary agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering, a charge contained in a criminal information filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles on Nov 17, 2020, the release said.
The statement described the Canadian suspect as a prolific money launderer for hackers engaged in ATM cash-out schemes, cyber-enabled bank heists, BEC schemes and other online fraud schemes.
Alaumary is also being prosecuted for his involvement in a separate BEC scheme by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, it added.
According to news in July 2020 Hushpuppi was charged by the US with conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from BEC frauds and other scams.
A resident in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, who flaunted his lifestyle on Instagram, the 38-year-old was arrested alongside 11 others including Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka Woodberryand taken to the US to face the criminal charges.
