KEY POINTS
- FBI says Nigerian Instagram star Hushpuppi aided North Korea cyber crime.
- Hushpuppi played supporting role in cyber-scams perpetrated by three North Koreans.
- Hushpuppi was extradited in July from Dubai to the US where he faces criminal charges.
Nigerian socialite Hushpuppi is said to play a supporting role in cyber-scams which extorted $1.3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency.
Hushpuppi, real name Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, was arrested in Dubai in July 2020 and subsequently extradited to US.
He faces criminal charges of allegedly conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from business email compromise frauds and other scams.
FBI have since determined the Nigerian socialite helped North Korean hackers launder money stolen from a Maltese bank.
The US Justice Department, which is prosecuting the Nigerian, said on February 17th that Hushpuppi played a supporting role in cyber-scams perpetrated by three computer programmers accused of extorting more than $1.3 billion of cash and cryptocurrency.
The Justice Department said the three North Korean state operatives – Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il and Park Jin Hyok, are the world’s leading bank robbers.
The trio and other unidentified North Koreans were involved in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. in 2014 and the attempted theft of nearly $1 billion from Bangladesh’s central bank in 2016. More recently, the group has focused on stealing cryptocurrencies.
The hackers allegedly turned to a network including Hushpuppi to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from an unidentified Maltese bank in February 2019.
The Nigerian socialite worked with a Canadian Ghaleb Alaumary, who US officials accused of organising teams to launder millions of dollars stolen by hacking ATMs including from BankIslami in Pakistan and a bank in India.
Hushpuppi was part of a group that allegedly tricked a paralegal at a US law firm into wiring them almost $923,000 in October 2019.
The Nigerian socialite and a partner also are accused of plotting to steal $125 million from an unnamed football club in the English Premier League.
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