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The request for bail by suspected cyber-criminal, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi has been denied in US.
This is coming amid claims by his lawyer Gal Pissetzky insisting that his job as an Instagram celebrity paid for the $10,000 monthly rent on his luxury Dubai flat.
The 37-year-old had, through his lawyer, applied to leave jail with an electronic tag and live with the uncle of a woman with whom he has a child with, but US prosecutors opposed the bail application.
According to UAE’s The National, the prosecutors said Hushpuppi could commit crimes with just a smartphone and an internet connection, and that he posed too much of a flight risk.
Pissetzky however countered that his client had too much to lose if he flees from the United States.
“He is loved and respected. He is a celebrity,” he told the trial judge, Jeffrey Gilbert in Chicago.
“I don’t see the reason why he would want to ruin his credibility in the world and his status rather than stay here and face this allegation.
“Anywhere he goes, people will know. Having grown up very poor in Nigeria, Mr Abbas is now paid to pose with high-priced items such as Louis Vuitton bags that people would buy after seeing his posts on Instagram.
“He is an influencer. That’s a job today, as much as it is hard to imagine. That’s a full-time job.”
Justice Gilbert who watched the proceedings from a prison video link, however, denied Hushpuppi’s request for bail on grounds of him being a flight risk and ordered that the suspected Nigerian fraudster be remanded in custody until he is taken to a court in California.
Hushpuppi was arrested in Dubai and extradited to the US.
He is facing criminal charges for “conspiring to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from Business Email Compromise (BEC) frauds and other scams, including schemes targeting a U.S. law firm, a foreign bank and an English Premier League soccer club.
If convicted of conspiracy to engage in money laundering, the self-acclaimed Instagram influencer would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
