15th September, 2022
Suspected Nigerian fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi, has through his lawyer, pushed for a delayed continuance of his trial.
The trial scheduled for September 21, might be delayed till November 3, 2022, if his request is granted.
According to Hushpuppi’s lawyer, Louis Shapiro, he would be unable to prepare for his sentencing hearing without all the documents relating to the Juma case.
By challenging the three-point role increase, Mr Shapiro’s petition is an attempt to shorten Hushpuppi’s sentence.
The change in court dates, according to Shapiro, would allow him and his client to contest the three-point role augmentation.
“On September 7, 2022, the government filed its position paper stating- that it agrees with the PSR’s request for a 3-point role enhancement per 3B1.1(b) as related to conducting in a separate case – USA v. Juma 2:21-cr-00203-RGK.
“Defendant would not be prepared to go to sentencing on September 19, 2022, or September 21, 2022, without the information in the possession of the government that Mr Abbas requires to address the 3-point enhancement in the Juma case.”
“Because the government is taking this position, Mr Abbas is requesting the court to grant a brief continuance to November 3, 2022, and to order the government to produce all the discoveries in the Juma case,” the document said.
As a result of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) dropping some of its accusations against Hushpuppi, “the United States agreed to dismiss the complaint against the defendant in the Juma case as part of the defendant’s plea agreement in the Abbas case.”
Abbas (Hushpuppi) engaged in a scheme to defraud a Qatari business and its owner in December 2019 with Kenyan national Abdulrahman Imraan Juma and others. Both guys obtained bank accounts at the Wells Fargo Bank in Canoga Park, California, after Mr Abbas pretended to be a representative of the institution.
Following the information provided, between December 19 and December 24, 2019, Messrs. Abbas and Juma deceived their victim into contributing $330,000 to finance a “investor’s account” in order to facilitate a $15 million loan.
The government’s investigation had listed the disgraced police officer Abba Kyari as one of five people Mr. Abbas had conspired with in a $1.1 million fraud allegation, and he had been indicted in the Juma case.
Prosecutors, however, pushed against Mr Shapiro’s arguments, saying “there is no good cause to grant the Motion, or to further delay the already long-delayed sentencing in this case.”