Cybercrime: UAE Police Extradites Alleged Fraudsters, Hushpuppi, Woodberry To US

By Akinwale Kasali

The end is not yet heard of Nigerian Instagram Celebrity and Cybercrime alleged fraudster,  Ramoni Igbalode, popularly known as Hushpuppi

Last week, Hushpuppi was arrested by Dubai Police authorities in United Arab Emirates for alleged fraudulent Cybercrime activities.

He  has now been handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, Dubai Police said on Thursday, with Gulf News Dubai disseminating the information to the world.

According to a statement, Christopher Wray, Director of FBI, praised the role of Dubai Police in arresting Hushpuppi and Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka Woodbery and handing them over to the US.

“Director of FBI expressed his thanks for the exceptional efforts (of Dubai Police) in fighting organized cyber crimes and arresting Hushpuppi and Woodbery,” Dubai Police said in the statement.

According to Dubai Police, Hushpuppi and Woodberry engaged in series of crimes that bothers on money-laundering, fraud, hacking of websites and accounts, impersonation, banking fraud etc.

Hushpuppi and Woodberry were arrested along with 10 other suspects on allegations of fraud, involving huge money.

Hushpuppi often posted pictures on Instagram with his luxury cars and private jet.

Last month, Dubai Police said that the operation called “Fox Hunt 2”, revealed a hidden online fraud network that was committing crimes outside the UAE, including money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, criminal impersonating, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft.

Police said the raid resulted in the seizure of incriminating documents pertaining to a well-planned international fraud worth Dh1.6 billion.

According to Dubai Police, the gang used to hack corporate emails and send fake emails to corporate customers to change money transfers to the gang’s personal banking accounts.

“They were designing and mimicking company and bank websites to steal credit card data and illegally obtain victims’ money before laundering the cash,” said Brigadier Jamal Al Jallaf Director of Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police.

During the arrest, police found a huge amount of data on individuals, companies, bank accounts, credit cards as well as documents of money laundering, online fraud, and hacking accounts of victims outside the UAE.

“The forged documents pertained to online fraud outside the country. The fraud was worth more than Dh1.6 billion. We seized more than Dh150 million in cash from them and confiscated 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million,” Brig Al Jallaf said.

Police confiscated 21 computers, 47 smartphones, 15 memory cards, five hard disks containing 119,580 fraud files as well as addresses of nearly two million victims.

It was discovered that Hushpuppi and his gang, allegedly, defrauded over 1.6 million people, and made over N160 Billion.