Nigeria’s Instagram star, Ramon Abass, popularly known as Hushpuppi, has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to money laundering charge levelled against him.
BBC pidgin claimed to have chanced upon court documents in which he reached an agreement to plead guilty.
The report says he was willing to appear before the court to plead guilty to conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Huspuppi is standing trial in Los Angeles, California and reports say he risks 20 years in jail.
Hushpuppi has been accused of being the leader of a group that facilitates computer intrusion, Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud and money laundering.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the four counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracies, international money laundering and engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
However, the United States Department of Justice insisted that he led an opulent lifestyle on social media funded by a cybercrime syndicate involved in email compromise or BEC scheme, hacking corporate emails and tricking staff into making money transfers.
“Abbas maintains social media accounts that frequently showed him in designer clothes, wearing expensive watches and posing in or with luxury cars and charter jets. The FBI’s investigation has revealed that Abbas finances this opulent lifestyle through crime,” according to the court document.
“Abbas and others further conspired to launder hundreds of millions of dollars from other fraudulent schemes and computer intrusions, including one scheme to steal £100m (approximately $124m) from an English Premier League soccer club,” the Department of Justice indicated months ago.