The trial of Hushpuppi, an
embattled Nigerian internet celebrity, has been fixed for October 13, following
his arraignment before a California court for cyber fraud.
According to Premium Times, the
controversial figure pleaded not guilty to his four counts of conspiracy to
commit money laundering conspiracies, wire fraud, international money
laundering, and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from
specified unlawful activity.
In June, the self-acclaimed
influencer was arrested with 11 associates after he was alleged to have
committed crimes including hacking, impersonation, scamming, banking fraud, and
identity theft.
Following his extradition to the US, he was first arraigned and detained at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), from where he hired a lawyer in defense of himself.
The UAE police authorities also
shared footage of Hushpuppi’s arrest in a special operation dubbed ‘Fox Hunt 2’
over cyber-fraud involving 1.9 million victims to the tune of N168 billion.
Defending his client, Gal
Pissetzky, Hushpuppi’s lawyer, had claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) had acted as though they had kidnapped the Instagram celebrity, citing a
lack of legal framework evidencing his extradition.
“He’s a social media influencer
with millions of followers, with millions of people that respect and loved him,
and he loved them, and that’s what he did. In today’s society, that’s a
business,” he had said.
“In my opinion, the FBI and the
government here acted illegally when they kidnapped him from Dubai without any
legal process to do so. There was no extradition. No legal steps were taken.”
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com