Hushpuppi in fresh FBI trouble, linked to North Korean bank robbers

Nigerian Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a.k.a Hushpuppi, now incarcerated in California as he awaits trial for cyber fraud was linked today by the FBI to North Korean hackers, said to be the biggest bank robbers in the world.

The Justice Department in a detailed statement released Friday said Mr Abbas took part in a “North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019.”

His role was as a collaborator with a North Korean money launderer, Ghaleb Alaumary, based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

The 37-year-old Alaumary was one of the people charged today by the FBI for many criminal schemes. The others are three North Koreans.

“Alaumary agreed to plead guilty to the charge, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on November 17, 2020,” according to the statement.

“Alaumary was a prolific money launderer for hackers engaged in ATM cash-out schemes, cyber-enabled bank heists, Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes, and other online fraud schemes. Alaumary is also being prosecuted for his involvement in a separate BEC scheme by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.

“With respect to the North Korean co-conspirators’ activities, Alaumary organised teams of co-conspirators in the United States and Canada to launder millions of dollars obtained through ATM cash-out operations, including from BankIslami and a bank in India in 2018.

“Alaumary also conspired with Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka ‘Ray Hushpuppi,’ and others to launder funds from a North Korean-perpetrated cyber-enabled heist from a Maltese bank in February 2019,” the statement said.

Mr Abbas already has a case of his own.

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles charged him in a separate case alleging that he conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from BEC frauds and other scams.

In a July statement, the Justice Department referred to the Maltese bank attack as “a $14.7 million cyber-heist from a foreign financial institution.”

“Both the date and amount match that of the attack on Malta’s Bank of Valletta in February 2019,” reported Forbes.

Mr Abbas, 38, was arrested in Dubai last year.

He arrived in the U.S. on July 3 to face criminal charges over allegations that he made “hundreds of millions of dollars” from business email compromise frauds and other scams.

His trial was to have commenced late last year but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A federal indictment unsealed today charges against three North Korean computer programmers with participation in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to conduct series of destructive cyberattacks, to steal and extort more than $1.3 billion of money and cryptocurrency from financial institutions and companies, to create and deploy multiple malicious cryptocurrency applications, and to develop and fraudulently market a blockchain platform.

A second case unsealed today revealed that a Canadian-American citizen had agreed to plead guilty in a money-laundering scheme and admitted to being a high-level money launderer for multiple criminal schemes, including ATM “cash-out” operations and a cyber-enabled bank heist orchestrated by North Korean hackers.

“As laid out in today’s indictment, North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather than guns, stealing digital wallets of cryptocurrency instead of sacks of cash, are the world’s leading bank robbers,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

“The Department will continue to confront malicious nation-state cyber activity with our unique tools and work with our fellow agencies and the family of norms abiding nations to do the same.

“Today’s unsealed indictment expands upon the FBI’s 2018 charges for the unprecedented cyberattacks conducted by the North Korean regime,” said the FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

“The ongoing targeting, compromise, and cyber-enabled theft by North Korea from global victims were met with the outstanding, persistent investigative efforts of the FBI in close collaboration with U.S. and foreign partners. By arresting facilitators, seizing funds, and charging those responsible for the hacking conspiracy, the FBI continues to impose consequences and hold North Korea accountable for its/their criminal cyber activity.”

“The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison for the Central District of California.