The United States government has described Abba Kyari, one of Nigeria’s celebrated cops, linked to a $1.1million transnational internet fraudster, as a “serious risk defendant”.
A U.S. grand jury has approved three charges against Mr Kyari and five others for their roles in the scam spearheaded by a former Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.
Hushpuppi, then a resident of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was arrested in June 2020 in connection to the case and other fraudulent schemes.
He was charged in a separate case and has now pleaded guilty at a U.S. District Court of Central District of California to the crime.
Approving the charges earlier proposed by the U.S. government, the grand jury alleged that Mr Kyari, Hushpuppi “together with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, knowingly conspired to commit wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343”.
They were also accused of conducting financial transactions involving proceeds of unlawful activity and aiding and abetting illegal use and transfer of a means of identification.
Other defendants named alongside Mr Kyari are Abdulrahman Juma (aka Abdul and Rahman), Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, Rukayat Motunrayo Fashola (aka Morayo), Bolatito Takakalitu Agbabiaka (aka Bolamide), and Yusuf Adeyinka Anifowoshe (aka AJ and Alvin Johnson).
Following the grand jury’s approval of the charges, Otis Wright, the same judge handling Hushpuppi’s case, made the order unsealing the indictment against Mr Kyari and others on July 26.
The judge in issuing the unsealing order also granted the government’s request for a detention order and an arrest warrant against Mr Kyari.
The U.S. government’s ‘Notice for Request of Request For Detention’ signed by an Assistant Attorney of the U.S government, Anil Antony, highlighted the reasons for asking for Mr Kyari’s arrest and his subsequent detention.
“Plaintiff, United States of America, by and through its counsel of record, hereby requests detention of defendant,” the document read, in part, and further gave “material factors” necessitating the request.
It said, the government “is entitled to detention hearing under § 3142(f)” because Mr Kyari as “serious risk defendant will flee”.
It also said the pretrial detention was requested “because no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure: the appearance of the defendant as required”.
Abba Kyari’s involvement
Hushpuppi, a resident of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), until his arrest in June 2020, had contacted Mr Kyari to arrange the arrest of one of the arrowheads of the heist, Chibuzo (Vincent), who was unhappy over his share of the proceeds of the fraud and was prepared to hint the victim, a Qatari businessperson, to stop payments.
“CHIBUZO’s messages to ABBAS during that time show that he was unhappy with the amount that, and/or speed with which, ABBAS was paying him, so he contacted the Victim Businessperson directly,” a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Andrew John Innocenti, said in an affidavit filed in support of the charge.
Mr Innocenti, whose account was based on message conversation extracted from Abass telephones, added, “CHIBUZO told the Victim Businessperson that JUMA and ABBAS were ‘fake,’ in an attempt to convince the Victim Businessperson to stop making fraudulent payments to ABBAS and JUMA and to make fraudulent payments to him instead.
“When JUMA and ABBAS learned of CHIBUZO’s interference, ABBAS arranged to have KYARI—a highly decorated Deputy Commissioner of the Nigeria Police Force—arrest CHIBUZO for interfering with the fraud scheme.
“ABBAS specifically told KYARI that CHIBUZO contacted ‘the job’ behind ABBAS’ back to ‘divert the job for himself.’
“ABBAS asked KYARI to have the police administer the ‘serious beating of his life’ and arranged with KYARI to pay to keep CHIBUZO imprisoned for at least a month so that the fraud scheme could be successfully executed, and the money could be obtained.”
Mr Kyari was said to have arrested Chibuzo and held him in custody for about a month as instructed by Hushpuppi.
He sent Chibuzo’s photograph in custody to Hushpuppi, the federal agent said, “and also facilitated payments from ABBAS to the Nigeria Police Force personnel who arrested CHIBUZO.”
This, according to Mr Innocenti, was “to ensure CHIBUZO’s continued arrest, thereby preventing CHIBUZO from notifying the Victim Businessperson of ABBAS’ and JUMA’s fraudulent scheme and preventing CHIBUZO from hijacking the scheme for his own benefit.
The decorated Nigerian cop was also said to have “told ABBAS that he would not allow CHIBUZO’s girlfriend to pay money to get CHIBUZO out of custody as he would have done for a ‘normal arrest’.
After Chibuzo’s arrest, the special agent said, “JUMA and ABBAS convinced the Victim Businessperson to make the payments of $299,983.58 described above.”
“KYARI’s knowing involvement in the scheme allowed ABBAS and JUMA to continue defrauding the Victim Businessperson undetected and receive money obtained from the Victim Businessperson after it was laundered,” the document added.
Charges
The three charges approved by the U.S. grand jury including an allegation that Mr Kyari “together with others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, knowingly conspired to commit wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343”.
The grand jury alleged in the second count that they conducted and attempted “to conduct financial transactions, affecting interstate and foreign commerce, knowing that the property involved in the financial transactions represented the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, which, in fact, involved the proceeds of specified unlawful activity — namely, wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343”.
They were also said to have aided and abetted one another and knowingly in transferring, possessing, and using, without lawful authority, a means of identification that each defendant knew belonged to another person, during and in relation to a felony violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, as charged in Count 1.
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