Cyber crime: Dubai Police extradite Hushpuppi to FBI

Hushpuppi, Nigerian internet fraudster has been surrender to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, Dubai Police said on Thursday.

According to Christopher Wray, Director of FBI, he extolled the role of Dubai Police in the apprehension of Raymond Abbas (Hushpuppi) and Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka Woodbery, and handing them over to the US.

“Director of FBI expressed his thanks for the exceptional efforts (of Dubai Police) in fighting organised cyber crimes and arresting Hushpuppi and Woodbery,” Dubai Police said in the statement.

According to Dubai Police, Hushpuppi and Woodbery, wanted for a series of crimes like money-laundering, fraud, hacking of websites and accounts, impersonation, banking fraud etc.

The suspects were rounded up on allegations of fraud, involving huge money.

Last month, Dubai Police said that the operation called “Fox Hunt 2”, revealed a hidden online fraud network that was committing crimes outside the UAE, including money-laundering, cyber fraud, hacking, criminal impersonating, scamming individuals, banking fraud and identity theft.

Police said the raid culminated in confiscation of incriminating materials pertaining to high-profile fraud worth Dh1.6 billion.

According to Dubai Police, the fraudsters were in the habit of hacking corporate emails and directing various financial transactions to their personal banking accounts.

“They were designing and mimicking company and bank websites to steal credit card data and illegally obtain victims’ money before laundering the cash,” said Brigadier Jamal Al Jallaf Director of Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police.

“The forged documents pertained to online fraud outside the country. The fraud was worth more than Dh1.6 billion. We seized more than Dh150 million in cash from them and confiscated 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million,” Brig Al Jallaf noted.

Police seized 21 computers, 47 smartphones, 15 memory cards, five hard disks containing 119,580 fraud files as well as addresses of nearly two million victims.