He did not respond to requests for comment and blocked this reporter.
Black axe syndicate update#
On Friday afternoon, Akinola posted a status update on his Instagram account of himself driving a Mercedes-Benz past Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium. In August, the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said Akinola was wanted on charges of criminal conspiracy, internet-related fraud and obtaining money by false pretence. South African police sources said Olatunji pleaded guilty to fraud in the Palm Ridge specialised commercial crimes court in July and will be sentenced next month for scamming two South African businesses using a business e-mail compromise scam.Īnother man allegedly connected to the group is Opaogun Oluwasegun Akinola, known as Opa 6ix, an Instagram celebrity with 572,000 followers who was a guest DJ at Hydro Lounge. Warner and investigators told the Sunday Times that SA is a lucrative sphere of operation for Black Axe.Īmong their high-profile members, several well-placed sources said, is Abdul Olatunji, owner of the Hydro Lounge nightclub in Sandton and the alleged leader of the Black Axe Midrand Zone. There are more arrests coming related to HushPuppi,” said Warner, who has worked with US law enforcement authorities on Black Axe cases. “They’re sealed because there’s other people who haven’t been arrested yet who would have been implicated if the documents were unsealed. Proof of Abbas’s connection with the South African Black Axe is likely in evidence sealed by a US court. In a statement after his indictment in July, the FBI’s Los Angeles field office assistant director Kristi Johnson described Abbas as “among the most high-profile money launderers in the world”. Sunday Times sources said Abbas was in contact with South African Black Axe members before his arrest in his Versace Hotel suite in Dubai last year. Professor Gary Warner, University of Alabama at Birmingham director of research in computer forensics, said world-famous social media influencer and Instagram celebrity Ramon Abbas, known as Ray HushPuppi, is strongly associated with Black Axe.
The Black Axe allegedly counts famous musicians and social media celebrities among its members. A manhunt involving Interpol, the Hawks and the police is under way for a ninth suspect, an alleged Cape Town Zone leader, who managed to evade arrest on Tuesday. Toritseju Gabriel Otubu, 41, was charged with fraud, identity theft, and money laundering while another man, Prince Ibeh, was charged in connection with a separate fraud case. “ all originally from Nigeria, are charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, spanning from 2011 to 2021,” the US justice department said in a statement, adding that four were also charged with “aggravated identity theft”.
Their victims in the US and SA are believed to number in the thousands but the indictment says the Cape Town Zone’s alleged founder, Perry Osagiede, 52, its alleged current leader Enorense Izevbigie, 45, and their “council of elders” - Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, 37, Osariemen Eric Clement, 35, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, 37, and Musa Mudashiru, 33 - allegedly stole R100m from about 100 US victims. “Seven leaders of the Cape Town Zone of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, also known as Black Axe, and an eighth man who conspired with a Black Axe leader, were charged with multiple federal crimes relating to internet scams they perpetrated from SA,” said acting US state attorney Rachael Honig in a statement on Wednesday. Since 2018, USSS agents and their Hawks counterparts have been gathering evidence of Black Axe’s alleged involvement in scams - including online dating in which lonely women and men were fleeced out of their life savings, and a business e-mail compromise scam - that led them to the men.
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