Published 18th Jan, 2025

By Daniel Ojukwu

There are social media claims that Ramon Abbas, an internet fraudster popularly known as Hushpuppi, has regained his freedom from a US prison.

On Saturday, X user @swankieDiva shared a video of Hushpuppi in an airport as several people take pictures of him.

She captioned the post, “I told y’all N***. I told you Rahmoni is coming out. Welcome back oblee king. The internet has missed your oppressions, the baddies have missed your spendings. The street has been too quiet.”

Users had watched the video over 14,000 times at press time.

CLAIM: Hushpuppi released from prison.

In July 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) collaborated with local security agencies to track Hushpuppi to his residence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where they arrested him.

Hushpuppi faced charges of money laundering, cybercrime, impersonation and among others. A year later, he pleaded guilty to the charges.

In November 2022, he bagged an 11-year jail term which should keep him in the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Fort Dix, New Jersey, until 2031.

Where then did the claims of his release emanate from?

VERIFICATION

FIJ checked through social media and found an early 2024 post containing the same video and claim on Instagram.

Before this, the video surfaced on TikTok in November 2023.

FIJ checked and found that this video was first published in 2018 on YouTube and captioned as Hushpuppi’s birthday celebration in Cyprus.

FIJ further checked the prison register for the US Bureau of Prisons and found Ramon Abbas listed with registration number 54313-424.