Instagram Fraud Sentenced to 11 years in Jail

Nearly 3 millions people followed Hushpuppi, an Instagram account run by Nigerian Ramon Abbas. According to BBC, his father was a cab driver and his mother was a market trader, but as he grew older, the man developed a weakness for throwing money around.

Now he will spend 11 years in jail.

Abbas used his social media to become notoriously famous, brag about his wealth in Dubai, and simultaneously ran online bank robbery scams.

His arrest in 2020 marked an abrupt end in his career. He was held in Los Angeles detention facility pending trial ever since.

Ramon Abbas confessed to attempted stealing more than $1.1 million from a man who wanted to fund a new children's school in Qatar, according to California court documents.

The Nigerian also admitted to several other schemes to compromise cyberspace and business emails that together caused more than $24 million in damages.

Abbas will serve a 135-month sentence in federal prison. The judge also ordered him to pay $1,732,841 (more than AED 6,3 million) in restitution to two fraud victims.