Gary Warner, the Director of Research in Computer Forensics at the University of Alabama, has stated that the viral reports that Hushpuppi committed a fresh fraud are false.
The report claimed that United States’ prosecutors filed fresh charges on infamous internet fraudster Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas accusing him of committing fraud and laundering over $400,000 while in prison.
Countering the report, Warner said the document shared to back the report is a doctored version of a June 2020 affidavit. He added that the edited document was intended to get people to visit a scammer website.
He tweeted: “People are asking me if it is true that #Hushpuppi laundered $400,000 in #Stimulus cards from in prison.
“The document they show is an edit of a June 2020 Affidavit. The new version is fake, intended to get people to visit a scammer EIP website.”
The fake documents claimed that Hushpuppi was involved in the purchase and laundering of Economic Impact Payment debit cards obtained from stolen data of U.S. citizens and residents.
Part of the fake document read, “RAMON OLORUNWA ABBAS is a Nigerian national previously living in the United Arab Emirates (the “U.A.E.”) but currently incarcerated in the US Federal correctional facility, Central District of California, on charges of money laundering. The FBI’s investigation has revealed that ABBAS, while in a US Federal correctional facility, participated in the purchase of Economic Impact Payment debit cards fraudulently obtained from compromised data of US citizens.
“Economic Impact Payments —commonly referred to as “stimulus checks” or “recovery rebates”— are a key provision of the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act legislation that Congress passed to help reduce the financial burden on citizens and residents across the United States. Economic Impact Payments are non-taxable income that does not need to be paid back. Economic Impact Payments debit cards are a means of disbursement of payments. Economic Impact Payments debit cards, commonly called EIP cards, are issued on the VISA network by Meta Bank, South Dakota, US.
“This affidavit presents new information involving ABBAS which supports Affidavit 1 of Case No 2:20-mj-02992. Recorded internet activities (reviewed pursuant to a federal search warrant issued in this District) of ABBAS in the US Federal correctional facility, Central District of California, reflect that ABBAS purchased Economic Impact Payments debit cards and laundered the proceeds totaling over $400,000.
“Payments debit cards daily for the period we recorded him. He purchased a total of 58 Economic Impact Payments debit cards in this period, with a total value of $429,800.
19 Of the 58 Economic Impact Payments debit cards, ABBAS chose the virtual card option for 36 EIP cards and he selected the plastic physical card option for 22 EIP cards.
“ABBAS was in constant communication with one AJ. ABBAS sent all the cards he bought from stimuluscard.com to AJ. ABBAS gave instructions to AJ on what to shop online. He gave instructions on what to do with the purchased items. ABBAS also gave instructions on cash withdrawal from ATMs with the plastic cards.
“One of the communications between ABBAS and AJ were as follows ABBAS: “Guy hw fr? You don receive the 5 new EIP cards?” AJ: “Yes bro” ABBAS: “Ok. Try pull out all the funds today.” AJ: “Fin on it already. Done 2 already.” ABBAS: “Nice one. What about the online purchase for yesterday? I say make you focus on iPhones 13 and PS5. Those ones dey very easy to resell.” AJ: “Yes. I finished that last night. Emptied the cards on Amazon. Iphones and PS5. I already received the 6 Macbook Air and 3 iPad Pro I ordered 3 days ago. My guys came pick them up this looming.” ABBAS: “Aiit. I go send you more EIP cards today.” After this conversation, ABBAS went ahead to buy more Economic Impact.”
