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Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or Apple Podcasts. Okay, Sachi, I do have a serious question for you before we begin. And you have to be honest. All right.
Has anyone ever snitched on you about something slash have you been a snitch? No, snitches get stitches. And so if anybody has ever snitched on me, they are dead now. Okay, so I want you to imagine you're doing something super illegal and one of your partners in crime squeals on you to the same person you are scamming out of money.
That would be upsetting and confusing, I think. So that's actually what happens to Hush Puppy in early 2020. And at this point, Hush Puppy is now one of the most elite cyber scammers in the world. So he has a lot to lose. ♪
Hush Puppy's at home in Dubai when he finds out one of his scam partners, Vincent Kelly Chibuzo, has pulled a double cross. Hush Puppy and his other partner Jama are pumping their mark, a business person in the U.S., for as much money as they can. But Vincent has been trying to get the mark to pay him instead.
Okay, and this is the business person who wants to build a school in Qatar, right? And he thinks Gemma and Hush Puppy can get him a loan? Yeah, that's exactly it. And Hush Puppy is furious. After everything he's done for Vincent, how dare he go behind his back?
Hush Puppy pulls up his own Instagram profile and picks a recent photo. It's one of him in his Versace penthouse wearing the Richard Mille watch worth $230K, which he bought with the money from the Qatari school scam. And he types out a caption. Do you want to read it? Of course I do.
One of the best things I learned that keeps me going is to never take criticism from people I'd never go to for advice. Insofar as pablum goes, it's pretty good pablum. Absolutely. But he thinks passive-aggressive captions, they're just not enough. So Hush Puppy pulls up Vincent's number and he starts typing a message and it's aggressive-aggressive.
That's more my speed. Yeah, it's just like texting you. Hushpuppi texts Vincent telling him he's committed a crime that won't be forgiven. He says Vincent will regret messing with him and adds, very soon, very, very soon, the wrath of my hands shall find you and when it does, it will damage you forever. Yeah.
I love that. It's what I hope my Real Housewives tagline would be. So this is more than just a Real Housewives tagline or an empty threat. Hushpuppi wants revenge. And he needs to be sure Vincent can't keep interfering in the scam. So he's about to call in a favor from one of the most powerful people in Nigeria. But in seeking revenge, Hushpuppi will betray his past, setting himself up for an international fall from grace.
From Wondery, I'm Sarah Hagee. And I'm Sachi Cole. And this is Scamfluencers. Scamfluencers.
In our last episode, we met the least subtle scammer, Ray Hushpuppi Abbas. Hushpuppi rose from Nigerian cyber cafes to Versace palaces by scamming businesses and people out of millions of dollars over email. And he washes up money by buying luxury outfits, expensive sneakers, and fancy cars, which he brags about to his 2.8 million followers on Instagram.
God, how did these people get so many followers in the first place? Well, that's a whole other scam. But what Hush Puppy doesn't know is that at this very moment, his social accounts are being watched closely. And not just by gossip blogs trying to figure out what he does for a living, but by the FBI. And they are closing in fast. Hush Puppy's downfall involves fancy watches, North Korean hackers, and dirty cops. And it cements his status as an unlikely folk hero.
This is part two of Billionaire Gucci Master. It's January 2020. A man named Aba Kiari, the deputy commissioner of the Nigerian police force, is in his office. He's in his mid-40s and tall with a shaved head, and he has a habit of wearing AirPods at all times. And his office, it's kind of a shrine to himself.
There are shelves lined with plaques and awards, several framed photos of him in uniform. And in the corner, there's even an oil painting of himself, of course. And to be fair, Aba has a lot to be proud of. He's the most decorated officer in the history of the Nigerian police. And he's famous in Nigeria. The media there refers to him as a super cop.
He's risen through the ranks to become deputy commissioner, including many years managing SARS, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. Okay, wait, why does that sound familiar? It's the police force that went after the Yahoo Boys. Abba made a name for himself by going after scammers and also kidnappers and bank robbers.
He's also become kind of a cop influencer. Like tens of thousands of people follow him on Instagram, where he posts pictures of himself winning awards and bragging about arrests and hanging out with celebrities. And one day, he picks up a call from a familiar number. A young Nigerian celebrity called... Drumroll...
Hush puppy. Wait, okay, so how do they know each other? We actually don't know for sure, but about four months earlier in September 2019, Abba visited Dubai. And while he was there, Hush Puppy loaned him a car and a driver. So they're friendly and they text back and forth. Like Abba sends Hush Puppy selfies and articles praising his accomplishments.
It's kind of like your text to me, Sachi. And at one point, Hushpuppi texts him saying,
I'm really happy to be your boy. I always love getting that text from you. Yeah, but Abba quickly realizes this isn't a normal social call. Hush Puppy is pissed off and he's asking for a favor. He wants Abba to help him get revenge on Vincent, the business partner who crossed him. So Hush Puppy, the world's most successful Yahoo boy, is coming to the super cop to ask for help.
Okay, this seems ill-advised, but something tells me there's more to this than I know. Yeah, I mean, there's a reason why Hush Puppy is going to ABBA in the first place. It's because this super cop is a super dirty cop. Ah, for years, ABBA's police teams have committed the same crimes they were supposed to be protecting Nigerian citizens against. I'm talking like obstruction, abduction, intimidation, and torture.
Aba's forces have even been known to murder people and then clean out their bank accounts. It's truly disgusting. Yikes. But Aba is like Teflon. Even though his awful tactics seem to be an open secret in Nigeria, at this point he's never faced any consequences.
And today, his boy Hush Puppy wants help locking up a fellow scammer. So after mulling it over, Aba says yes, for a price. And just like that, Hush Puppy becomes a part of the same corrupt system that terrorized him as a young man. But little does he know, this is the move that will bring down Nigeria's most crooked cop for good. A week later, Hush Puppy's phone buzzes with a new message. It's from Aba.
It's a photo of Vincent in a jail cell. He looks miserable and exhausted. Abba made good on his promise to have Vincent arrested. And now that Vincent's behind bars, he can't interfere with Hush Puppy's scheme. But Hush Puppy isn't satisfied. So Hush decides to take it one step further. He texts Abba, I want him to go through serious beating of his life.
When Abba replies, ha ha ha ha, Hush Puppy writes back, seriously, sir.
That is a very tense ha-ha-ha-ha text. It's absolutely insane that this is all happening over text message. It's like, hey, let's just take our corruption another step further, and I want you to beat this man, and I also will have records of it on my phone. Yeah, they really love to leave a paper trail, I'm seeing. Considering how much Hushpuppies should know about
and, like, online safety. It's crazy that there's a text trail of this. And you know what? That's not even the worst part. Hushpuppi follows up and offers to send Abba a big chunk of change if he and his team make sure that Vincent suffers for many years.
And Aba accepts the offer. He texts Hushpuppi a bank account number so he can deposit the cash. Later that day, Hushpuppi sees a new post from Aba on Instagram. It's a super cop standing next to a lectern surrounded by other Nigeria police force officers. They're at a press conference announcing the arrest of 60 kidnappers. Aba stares right into the camera, radiating pride.
Oh, Jesus Christ. I know. So Hush Puppy gets back to the Qatari scam. Without Vincent there to mess things up, him and Jama managed to get hundreds of thousands of more dollars from the business person. They eventually get $1.1 million from the scheme. But by mid-February, the mark has started to catch on. They cut off communication with Jama, then Hush Puppy, for good.
While the scam's unraveling, Abba messages to say Vincent has gotten sick in jail. He has a fever and a rash. And with the scheme winding down, Hushpuppi texts Abba saying that he'll forgive Vincent for the sake of God. He says Abba can release him, but keep all of his confiscated electronics. So Vincent is free, but Hushpuppi's proven that there's no honor among thieves.
A few months after the Qatari school scam fell apart, FBI agent Andrew John Innocenti is hunched over his desk in Los Angeles. He's scrolling through a mountain of digital data. After his team arrested Canadian cyber scammer Galeb Alomari late last year, agent Innocenti has been focused on Galeb's associates, including an ostentatious influencer who calls himself Hush Puppy.
The FBI has to prove that Hush Puppy is the man who worked with Galeb to target a Maltese bank. So they request user data from Instagram. And once that rolls in, it confirms that Hush Puppy's account is associated with the same number Galeb was communicating with. And the email used to start the account lists Palazzo Versace as its address. And...
Recent logins are from an IP address in the United Arab Emirates. Okay, I feel like even I am harder to trace than this person, and I'm pretty online. I know. And once the FBI gets access to that email account, they find scans of tons of IDs Hushpuppi used.
Real and fraudulent. Photos on those IDs match the charming half-smile plastered all over Instagram. And the birth date matches up with several posts Hush Puppy makes celebrating his birthday with custom cakes from Gucci, Versace, and Fendi. Oh, and who could forget the video of his birthday party at Burberry? Remember this clip from Daddy Freeze's YouTube page? So it's Hush Puppy's birthday.
And we're celebrating that day tomorrow. How? How could I have forgotten? Well, evidence of Hush Puppy's identity, his whereabouts and his wealth is all over Instagram. And it doesn't take long for Agent Innocenti to connect the dots.
But Hush Puppy isn't the ultimate target of his investigation. The FBI has its sights set on the North Korean hackers, the ones who broke into Sony and who helped Galeb and Hush Puppy rip off the bank in Malta. Right. So the FBI is approaching this like a mob case. Go after the lower status members like Hush Puppy and get them to flip. With their help, you get closer to the real bosses, which in this case is the North Korean hackers.
And this is a massive operation. The FBI is working with the government of the UAE, the Dubai police force, the U.S. Secret Service and the Kenyan government. And I'm sorry, this is hilarious. This just proves that men are really like little boys forever. They're calling this investigation Operation Top Dog.
Oh, Jesus Christ. You can hear how proud they are of that name. They are so proud. So Agent Innocenti decides it's time to bring Hushpuppi in to learn what he knows. So he calls his colleagues at the Dubai Police Department and gives them the green light. Just past midnight on June 8th, 2020, Sekuru Adekoya, who goes by Pak, is flipping through the channels on TV.
He's stretched out on a plush sofa in the penthouse of the Palazzo Versace. He doesn't live here, but he's visiting his childhood friend, Hush Puppy. And he's known him long before he went by that nickname. Pac's beard is less bushy than Hush Puppy's, and he's a bit more trim. But the two look like they belong together, just like they did growing up in suburban Lagos.
As kids, they looked out for each other. When Hushpuppi got suspended from school, he knew he could hide out at Pak's house. And Pak gave Hushpuppi his first pair of Nikes. So when Hushpuppi moved away from Nigeria and got a major life glow up, he invited his friend to come to Dubai. Hushpuppi took Pak in and helped him look for work. But it's been hard for Pak to get a good job. And just when he was about to head back home, Pak got appendicitis.
Hush Puppy paid for his friend's medical care, of course. And then, by the time Pac had recovered, the pandemic shut down all travel. So Pac's still here, crashing at Hush Puppy's penthouse, waiting for his luck to change. Okay, well, if we're making a podcast about him, something tells me it won't. Actually, they all live happily ever after, and this is the end of the episode. And our show's done. We have no more stories to tell. Well, back to reality. Suddenly, the...
there's a loud thud at the front door. Pac jolts up from the couch just as a SWAT team rushes into the room. They're decked out in helmets and flak jackets, batons in hand. They grab Pac's phone out of his hand and motion for him to get down on the floor. They tell him he's under arrest and they demand to know where Hush Puppy is. They're yelling, where are his computers? Where is his money? A,
Oh, wait. Okay, so is this the raid from that wild-ass police video? Yes, this is the exact raid, and I think we could actually hear more of it here.
In the operation, police officers were also able to seize items worth more than 150 million dirhams after they claimed 21 computers, 47 smartphones, 15 storage memory devices and five hard disks containing data. And that comes out to over $40 million. The police run upstairs and return with a bleary-eyed hush puppy wearing a white T-shirt and green track pants. His hands are tied behind his back.
Pac lays on the ground, face down, mind racing. He doesn't understand why this is happening to his friend. Does Pac know that Hushpuppi is a scammer? Well, Pac swears he doesn't know. That he thinks Hushpuppi made all of his money in real estate, just like his Instagram bio says. So he and Hushpuppi are arrested, taken to police headquarters, and jailed separately. Four days later, a Dubai prosecutor and FBI agents question Pac.
He told them Hush Puppy was a businessman. He'd never even seen him use a laptop at the penthouse. Pak knew Hush Puppy, the Nigerian boy who transcended poverty and was generous in his success. He never knew the international cybercriminal. But now, the whole world is going to learn the truth about the billionaire Gucci master. All the influence in the world can't help Hush Puppy now.
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huge news in Nigeria. We begin What's Trending with a viral video by the Dubai Police Department detailing a raid on a cybercrime gang led by Nigerian Instagram celebrity, popularly known as Hush Puppy. A few weeks after the Dubai police raid, the FBI files a criminal complaint against Hush Puppy, charging him with conspiracy to engage in money laundering. If convicted, Hush Puppy faces up to 20 years in prison.
The FBI calls Hushpuppi a key player in a large transnational conspiracy. They accuse him of flaunting an opulent lifestyle while ripping people off all over the world, including victims in the U.S., which is how Hushpuppi ends up in a prison in downtown Chicago. His preliminary hearing is set for July 2nd, 2020.
Hushpuppies first lawyer is a local Chicago attorney, Gal Pazetsky, from a law firm called Pazetsky and Berliner. He's trim, bald, and wears round glasses. And he has a website where he calls himself a modern day Perry Mason. You know, the righteous criminal defense attorney from the 1950s TV show. It's a very current reference. Oh, no. And Sachi, Gal.
Gal has a sizzle reel. He has a what? He has a sizzle reel, babe. Okay, we actually have to watch this. I've litigated hundreds of Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment motions in which law enforcement violated my client's constitutional rights. I'm Gal Pisetsky, and I'm here to defend, protect, and fight for your rights.
It looks like a trailer for like a new Law and Order, but for nerds. Well, Gal has a plan for Hush Puppy. He tells him to plead not guilty. And he starts talking to the media saying Hush Puppy is a legit influencer. Gal tells Forbes that his client is, quote, an Instagram personality. He was promoting brands and that's how he was very legitimately making his money. Can
Can you please read the rest of this quote, Sachi? I can. 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. Oh, that is the darkest thing I've ever heard in my life. I mean, where's a lie?
I guess. Love is a business. Ugh, Christ. Well, Gal says the U.S. government is just trying to make an example of him. They know that this will be reported in headlines, especially around the world. And they knew that people that engage in BEC schemes, especially from Nigeria, I think,
We'll hear it and we'll know that the United States will go after you and they will punish you. But this approach, gotta say, it doesn't seem like a great move. Gall also admits that he is not 100% familiar with social media and his children consider him too old. He says he knows that's how people make money today. Okay, so that's not really what you want to hear from the person who's going to, like,
get you out of jail and his entire defense hinges on being social media savvy. Yeah, and a few weeks later, Hushpuppies transferred to Los Angeles where Agent Innocenti's FBI squad is headquartered to await trial. And shortly after he gets there, Hushpuppies stops returning gals' calls and hires a new attorney. And then it seems he has a change of heart and a complete change of strategy.
he decides to plead guilty. The billionaire Gucci master has been brought down to earth, and he isn't the only one facing consequences. Meanwhile, Hush Puppy's friend Pac is in hot water too. Ever since the FBI raid, he's bounced from prison to prison in the United Arab Emirates for almost six months. Oh God, that's a long time. I know, it's not fair and he's in hell.
He has no idea what's going on. The police there don't even let him shower for weeks at a time. And they ask him over and over again about his friend. How did Hush Puppy make his money? How did he invest? But Pac doesn't budge. He says he genuinely doesn't know anything about Hush Puppy being a scammer.
I don't know if I totally buy that, right? He was so obvious about it. I think there's a part of me that believes that someone like Hushpuppi, who still has this, like, grind mentality and sees himself as an inspiration, like, maybe wouldn't tell his closest friend who knew him before he was...
who he is, you know what I mean? Like, I could see him hiding that side of himself and... Yeah, I guess if they're sort of connected in ways beyond sort of his, like, business nonsense. Yeah, and also, like, Pac doesn't really have anything to gain from lying. Like, Hushpuppi's out.
Yeah. Okay. And regardless, the police aren't buying it. They threaten to keep Pak in a Dubai prison for life unless he testifies against his friend. He's held without charges or a lawyer. Then one day, Pak is suddenly transferred to immigration custody and released. Then authorities tell them he has to fly back to Nigeria.
Only they leave him with nothing. No phone, none of the cash he had when he got arrested, not even his own clothes. So how is he going to get home? Yeah, we actually don't know how he gets home, but thankfully he does get home and he doesn't have to spend life in prison. And if what he says is true, Pac is an innocent bystander who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But there's one Hush Puppy associate who's about to get exactly what's coming to him. In February 2021, while Hush Puppy is still being held in L.A., representatives from several U.S. law enforcement agencies hop on a virtual press conference to announce the results of a years-long investigation into a group of North Korean cybercriminals.
the same group that hacked into Sony in 2014. That's John Demers, who was then Assistant Attorney General for National Security.
He goes on to announce charges against three North Korean nationals who allegedly attempted to steal and extort more than $1.2 billion from financial institutions and companies all over the world. Basically, North Korean hackers are all about financial crimes because the country is hard up for cash given its weak economy and years of brutal sanctions. And they've gotten really, really good at it.
Members of the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Justice Department have been working together for years on this case. Being able to announce the names of three hackers and roll out their wanted posters is a really big deal. Here's John again. To show to these actors that they are not as anonymous as they think they are. As you see in this indictment, you can see photos of the hackers at issue. You'd think you're anonymous behind a keyboard, but you're not.
So are they actually going to arrest these North Koreans? Like, what's happening here? I mean, probably not. But law enforcement agencies are basically blowing up their spot. So now they have to come up with new fake emails, fake company names and new methods of scamming. And they're trying to build upon an international movement to crack down on cyber fraud.
We chose to unseal the indictment today for several reasons, one of which was the related announcement of a criminal case against the money launderer, Ghalib Alamari. Alamari conspired to steal and then launder tens of millions of dollars for the North Koreans and other criminals.
That's Tracy Wilkinson, who was then the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. Basically, she's saying Hush Puppy's pal Galeb, Big Boss, agreed to a plea deal. All right, so Big Boss is just going to be another broke asshole in Mississauga like the rest of us. He's just another broke boy from Mississauga. But when the Justice Department charges Hush Puppy for his involvement in yet another scam, it sparks an international uproar that hits close to home.
right back in Lagos. In July 2021, a little more than a year after Hushpuppi's arrest, he's indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles.
The indictment calls Hushpuppi one of the most high-profile money launderers in the world. It alleges he took part in stealing more than $1 million through the Qatari school scam. And it also reveals one of his high-profile collaborators, Aba Kiari, deputy commissioner of the Nigeria police force for taking Hushpuppi's money to throw Vincent in jail.
The FBI charges confirm an open secret in Nigeria: that Aba is a massively crooked cop. Aba is immediately suspended from his job.
and the Nigerian police start an investigation into the accusations. But for many Nigerians, this is a really painful turn of events. Remember when we talked about how ABBA led the SARS task force for years? Yeah, they were profiling young men in Nigeria. They were harassing them, arresting them, extorting them, and sometimes they were killing them just for carrying a cell phone or a laptop. Yeah, it was extremely brutal. And a few months before ABBA's arrest,
A viral video allegedly showed SARS officers killing a young man. And it sparked two weeks of protests with a movement called #EndSARS.
The government announced it was dissolving the SARS unit, but the protests kept going. Then the police opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators. And according to Amnesty International, more than 50 people died during the protests. Though the government promised to create panels to hold officers accountable, they never followed through. So when the news about Abba Kiari breaks, the news media explodes. What next for Abba?
Abba Kiari, the scandal around the so-called super cop is still raging. Yesterday, social media was agog with information about the deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kiari. Abba Kiari, a deputy commissioner of police in Nigeria, is one of the country's most popular police officers. Now, with his indictment by the FBI and the issuing of a warrant of his arrest, the integrity of the police again comes to the spotlight.
The news reignites outrage over police corruption. And Nigerians aren't just angry about Kyari. They're upset that Hush Puppy, the former Yahoo boy turned aspirational legend, has been colluding with the enemy.
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While Hushpuppi negotiates a plea deal in the U.S., Aba Kiari is desperate to salvage his reputation in Nigeria. So he follows in the long and storied tradition of influencer apologies and posts a long message to Facebook. In it, Aba claims he was only helping Hushpuppi investigate threats against his life. As soon as he figured out that Hushpuppi's beef with Vincent was a money squabble, he let him out.
Oh, and those bank numbers he shared with Hush Puppy? That was for payments to a local seller of native clothes and caps, he writes. No crime to see here. Unfortunately for Abba, absolutely no one buys his weak-ass excuses. It just makes people even more pissed off. So he deletes the post. And he hasn't posted to Instagram since the accusations were made public.
But if we've learned one thing in doing this series, Sachi, it's that scammers gonna scam. So before long, Abba's in the headlines again. While he's still under investigation, Abba posts photos to Facebook of himself at a wedding for the son of the Inspector General of Police,
That would be the guy who's leading up the investigation against ABBA. Conflict of interest much? And after some massive backlash, he takes the post down from Facebook. I did!
Everybody is posting so much in this story. Like, everybody just needs to shut up and be quiet and stay home. I know. But then, nearly a year after that, Abba is arrested for his alleged involvement in an international cocaine smuggling ring. According to Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Abba was caught trying to sell coke that the Nigerian police force confiscated. So now he's behind bars awaiting trial.
And he isn't enjoying having the tables turned. In May, Abba begs the court to let him out on bail because he doesn't feel safe in prison.
It's July 28th, 2021. Hushpuppi has been in an L.A. jail for about a year. He's reached the end of the road and he can't hustle culture his way out of this one. So he pleads guilty to money laundering and fraud. And the FBI says they've tallied up how much he ended up swindling people out of. And it's roughly $24 million. Ooh, that's a lot of watches.
But even though Hushpuppi is in a U.S. prison and has admitted to a truly shocking level of international scamming, he remains a kind of cultural force in Nigeria. Like, as of right now, the Hushpuppi soldiers fan page has over 35,000 people who are still standing by him.
Even with all the scamming he's done, there are still a lot of people that look up to him as kind of an aspirational figure. Like on Hush Puppy's birthday, the year he was arrested, his fan club posted a photo of him during happier times at a luxury car dealership, a drink in his hand. Sachi, I need you to read us the message they posted along with that photo.
I'm here to help you remember that nothing is going to happen to you that you can't handle it. May the Almighty answer the wish and the prayers in your heart. Here's wishing you a happy birthday with many more to come. Remain the strong person that you are. Someone else who posted in honor of Hush Puppy's birthday is Pak, his childhood friend who remains loyal to him to this day. In the caption, he says he will stand by him till death.
But Pak also posts about how traumatic his experience has been. After Dubai police dumped him at immigration, Pak somehow managed to find a way back home to Nigeria. In an Instagram post on the anniversary of his arrest, Pak says the six months in jail were the darkest time of his life.
He says he wouldn't wish that on his worst enemy and that he still has nightmares. I feel bad for Pac, but like, he's still loyal to Hushpuppi, even though he's the reason he went to jail. Like, why? I could see it kind of being a thing of like, this is someone I loved in my life. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it just seems... Yeah, he's got, it's like, it's Stockholm syndrome. He's like so in it. Well, Pac isn't the only one who's still got a soft spot for Hushpuppi.
Because Yahoo boys now have folk hero status with a lot of Nigerians. An overwhelming majority of Nigerians are under 24 years old, and only one third of them have full-time employment. The government and police have major corruption issues, so a lot of people sympathize with Yahoo boys and even glorify them, like a lot of the rappers who named Rappash Puppy.
And his Instagram, which is still up, has more than 2 million followers and gets flooded with positive comments. Oh, and he's also going to be made into a movie. I will see that movie. You're first in line. Well, of course, not everyone is sympathetic. Voices Banner, a rising Afrobeat star, dropped a diss track after Hush Puppy's arrest. They Will Catch You, Hush Puppy.
He says he wrote the song because he's been the victim of scammers. And it's honestly a banger, I do have to say.
Well, Sachi, this story took us all over the world and includes some of the most fabulous and honestly the most reprehensible scammers we've seen so far. So now it's time to figure out what do we make of all of this? Yeah, this is a really weird story where the scam goes from like, not great, but stupid to like evil. Real bad. Very bad. Yeah, it's really crazy because it's like,
Hush Puppy kind of dug his own grave because he just was addicted to posting. And...
It was weird because he actually ended up doing the legitimate work influencers do, which is, you know, going to fashion shows and propping up designers and, you know, posting from stores. But he was actually like an international cyber con man. If you were just rich and quiet, you could get away with so much in your scam. But all these people need to brag. This is one of the themes here.
in the podcast. It's like, if you just live a peaceful and unethical life, no one will know. But if you yammer about it, people will know. Yeah. It also is crazy because it's like, they didn't have to work that hard to take him down. No, they're acting as if they had to do all these background checks. It's like they did one Google and looked at his Instagram and were like, oh, here he is. I will say this again. Any woman in her 20s or 30s
could have easily figured this out. Like, there's this guy at the gym that I saw today. No joke. I found him on Instagram in five minutes, Sachi.
If this episode also serves as anything else, perhaps it serves as a reminder of the ineptitude of some police, frankly. Yeah, I think this is also a very interesting story because there is like a ton of racism towards Nigerians, especially when it comes to like the jokes about Nigerian scammers or whatever. But also...
I do understand the idea that like some people are in this situation where this seems like the best way out. I do see the inspirational folk hero kind of Yahoo boy thing, though. Like I see how that can happen really easily.
For sure. I don't know that Hushpuppi is the worst person in this. I think it's the super cop. Oh, absolutely. It's a super cop. I don't think Hushpuppi is the worst person at all. I think he's just extraordinarily fascinating because he was such a legitimate influencer and actually had millions of followers and so many people who were into him.
But ABBA was way worse. Way worse. I mean, Sarah, are there any lessons that you will be taking into your own social media diet? There absolutely is a lesson here. And to me, it's you don't have to be so flashy. Like, don't be tacky. If Hushpuppi would have never become the billionaire Gucci master, we wouldn't even know about him. He wouldn't have been caught.
yeah, that's, I think the lesson here is if you are someone you love has posters disease, um,
Please consider seeing a professional. Yeah. Also, don't trust a man from Mississauga. Oh, listen. If a man comes up to you and he's like, I'm from Toronto, the first question is, are you sure? And then if he says, well, I'm from Mississauga, run. Take it from Sachi. Take it from me. Don't trust anybody from Mississauga. I've made that mistake before. I will never do it again.
This is part two of Billionaire Gucci Master. I'm Sarah Hagee. And I'm Sachi Cole. We use many sources in our research. A few that were particularly helpful were Evan Ratliff's feature for Bloomberg and Jeff White's book, The Lazarus Heist. Paola Mejia wrote this episode. Additional writing by Sachi Cole and Sarah Hagee. Jen Swan is our senior producer. Our producer is John Reed. Our associate producers are Charlotte Miller and Tate Busby.
Sarah Enni is our story editor. Our senior story editor is Rachel B. Doyle. Additional research by Chisom Peter Jobe. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Freesound Sync. Adrian Tapia provided audio assistance. Our sound design is by Jay Rothman. Our executive producers are Janine Cornelow, Stephanie Jens, and Marshall Louie for Wondery.
If you like Scamfluencers, you can listen to every episode early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
