In the pretrial, he pleaded not guilty to all four counts and risks 20 years imprisonment if convicted. The 37-year-old, who described himself in his Instagram biography as a ‘real estate developer’, gained popularity by flaunting his wealth to his over 2.5 million followers.
When he was arrested by the FBI — who collaborated with Snapchat, Instagram and Apple — Hushpuppi and his accomplices were found to be in possession of:
- $40m cash;
- 13 luxury cars worth $6.8m;
- 21 computers;
- 47 smartphones;
- and a list of two million names of victims.
Hushpuppi has hired top criminal defence lawyer Louis Shapiro to defend him at the jury trial which was suspended due to Covid-19, but is scheduled to continue on 4 May 2021.
Postal fraud begins in Nigeria
In Nigeria, Hushpuppi’s country of origin, fraud is popularly known as ‘419’ or ‘yahoo yahoo’. The country has long been associated with fraud, which
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