Money Laundering: Hushpuppi Pleads Guilty, Risks 20 Years’ Imprisonment

An alleged international fraudster, Ramon Abbas who is popularly known as Hushpuppi, has pleaded guilty to multi-million dollar fraud charges filed against him by the United States government.

In a plea agreement document, Hushpuppi agreed to plead guilty as charged.

The document was signed by Hushpuppi; his lawyer, Loius Shapiro; acting United States attorney, Tracy Wilkison, amongst others.

This was contained in a statement released on Wednesday by the court titled, ‘Six Indicted in International Scheme to Defraud Qatari School Founder and then Launder over $1 Million in Illicit Proceeds’.

His plea agreement stated further that he will now be pleading guilty to Count Two which is “Conspiracy to Engage in Money Laundering,” an offence that attracts a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment among other punishments including full restitution.

The document partly read, “Defendant (Hushpuppi) admits that defendant is, in fact, guilty of the offence to which defendant is agreeing to plead guilty.

Arrested in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) in June 2020, and subsequently extradited to the U.S. where most of the victims of his alleged fraudulent activities are based, Mr Abass has spent the last one year in custody maintaining his innocence.

A date is to be fixed for him to change his previous “not guilty” plea to “guilty” and will be followed by a sentencing hearing for the judge to determine how long he will spend in jail.