Hushpuppi’s lawyer, Gal Pissetzky, has accused the FBI of kidnapping his client in Dubai and taking him to the U.S. In a chat with BBC, the lawyer sai
Hushpuppi’s lawyer, Gal Pissetzky, has accused the FBI of kidnapping his client in Dubai and taking him to the U.S. In a chat with BBC, the lawyer said United Arab Emirates has no extradition treaty with the United States.
According to him, his client, Hushpuppi, who posts on Instagram about his extravagant lifestyle, was not a criminal and had made his money legitimately in real estate.
“He is 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 said.
Pissetzky told BBC that: “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, there were no legal steps taken, there were no court documents filed, it was simply a call to the FBI. He is not a citizen of the United States, the US had absolutely no authority to take him.
“If Dubai wanted to expel him, they should have expelled him back to Nigeria. I’ve never heard of anything like that. That is the real story here.”
The 37-year-old fraudster was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by the Dubai Police. The police revealed that upon the arrest of Hushpuppi and 12 other members of his crew, it discovered that fraud amounting to 1.6 billion Dirham (N168 billion) had been committed by the gang.
No fewer than 1,926,400 people from different parts of the world were also said to have fallen victims to the suspects. According to the police, 13 luxury cars, estimated at 35 million Dirham (N3.7 billion) were recovered from the house where they were arrested.
The Dubai police later handed him over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States where he had since been arraigned on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, among others.
Amongst other charges, the FBI alleged that Hushpuppi attempted to dupe an English Premier League football club of £100m (N48.4bn). The allegation is contained in an affidavit deposed to by FBI Special Agent, Andre Innocenti, who is assigned to the Los Angeles Field Office Hi-Tech Organised Crime Squad.
The FBI further stated that should Hushpuppi be convicted, he risks spending 20 years in jail.
