Suspected Internet fraudster, Ramoni Igbalode Abbas aka Hushpuppi, has been denied bail by a US judge in Chicago on Monday.
The Judge ruled that he will remain detained until his trial later this year over money laundering allegations.
Assistant United States Attorney Melody Wells, a prosecutor in the Chicago district attorney’s office, convinced the court that Abbas (Hushpuppi) is a flight risk, describing his “significant” financial assets, “deep ties to foreign countries” and a lack of ties to the United States. Wells said Abbas had the “perfect recipe to flee the charges that he faces here.”
Flight risk is a legal term used to refer to the possibility that a person under the custody of law enforcement will abscond if granted bail.
According to a report on Forbes, Hushpuppi requested to live with his girlfriend’s relative in Illinois but the US prosecutor argued against that.
He noted that Hushpuppi had up to this point “never visited” the girlfriend or their child in the United States. “There is no evidence that he has ever even met this ‘Uncle’ who would be the third-party custodian under these circumstances.”
Hushpuppi’s lawyer, Gal Pissetzky, however, argued that he posed no flight risk because of the damage it would do to his credibility online.
He also added that “He is loved and respected. He is a celebrity. He would not want to ruin his credibility and status rather than stay here and face these allegations.”
Speaking on Huhspuppi’s flamboyant lifestyle, Pissetzky was quoted as saying: “Mr Abbas is an Instagram personality. A social media personality. Of course he poses with high price items because that’s what he gets paid to do. That’s what he has built from growing up very poor in Nigeria, he was able to develop himself into this very well-known personality with millions of followers on Instagram. He is an influencer — that is what my kids would call him — an influencer. And people seeing him with these Louis Vuitton bags or clothes, or Gucci bags and clothes, or these fancy cars and they go and want it. They wanna buy it. That’s a job today. As much as it’s hard to imagine — that’s a full-time job.”
However, the court ruled that there was “more than enough justification to order that the U.S. Marshall bring [Abbas] to California as soon as possible to answer the complaint there.” Ruling that Abbas had “A great incentive not to continue to respond to these proceedings here,” as he is “facing a long sentence.”
