Ever Heard the name Hushpuppi AKA Ramon Abbas? He was a Nigerian social media influencer, leading an extravagant lifestyle funded by cybercrime. His dressing style, expensive cars, and luxury holidays, which he showcased to his many followers on Instagram and Snapchat, made him a celebrity.
There are several YouTube episodes that describe his life and the things he does. These documentaries take off from coming from humble beginnings in Lagos to the ‘billionaire Gucci master’ he is now in Dubai living the high life and then his crash when the house of cards, which he had built with online fraud, came tumbling down.
Hushpuppi was involved in criminal activities such as money laundering and is now sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States. He has been termed one of the high-profile money launderers by the FBI.
Interestingly enough, Hushpuppi had been trying to show off the money he intended to use to impress American socialite Blac Chyna on an Instagram account. This shows that Hushpuppi reportedly dined with Blac Chyna and shared a picture of their meeting on Instagram, which caught the attention of the FBI, after which the FBI began to investigate his whole affair, and he reportedly found some incriminating evidence against him. His over-zealousness in showing off their dinner date brought his downfall.
This is an obvious example of how social media, at times unveils more than we would like it to, with effects that we’d never expect. We should always be careful of what we share on the net.
