Aboubakar Hima

A summary of what happened?

Aboubakar Hima is a Nigerian businessman and arms dealer known for his controversial dealings in arms contracts across West Africa, particularly in Nigeria. He has been the subject of numerous accusations and legal disputes involving shady arms deals, and efforts to censor the internet are most likely motivated by a desire to hide negative information about his actions.

Here are three major concerns, complaints, and accusations against Aboubakar Hima:

1. Fraudulent Arms Deals: Hima has been implicated in multiple fraudulent arms contracts, particularly in Nigeria, where he is accused of misappropriating public funds meant for military equipment purchases. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria declared him wanted for defrauding the Nigerian government of over $394 million related to arms supplies that were either overpriced or never delivered.
2. Efforts to Censor Negative Information: Hima has allegedly used fake DMCA notices to remove unfavorable content from the internet. These efforts are part of a broader strategy to manipulate online information and obscure details about his involvement in corrupt arms deals and fraudulent activities.
3. Ties to Corruption and Bribery: In addition to his fraudulent business practices, Hima has been accused of bribing government officials to secure lucrative contracts. His arms dealings have extended to other countries, including Senegal, where experts have raised concerns about the opaque nature of his business arrangements.

These actions have led to increased scrutiny of Hima’s activities, both in Nigeria and internationally, as legal and investigative bodies continue to probe his dealings.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Aboubakar Hima trying to hide?

Aboubakar Hima‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Aboubakar Hima in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Aboubakar Hima may be trying to remove from the internet –

Here are 10 adverse news items, allegations, lawsuits, sanctions, complaints, and negative reviews against Aboubakar Hima:

1. Fraudulent Arms Contracts in Nigeria: Hima is accused of defrauding the Nigerian government of over $394 million through fraudulent arms contracts. The contracts involved supplying military equipment, much of which was either overpriced or never delivered.
2. Wanted by the Nigerian EFCC: The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria has declared Hima wanted for criminal conspiracy, contract scams, and misappropriation of public funds. He is evading the investigation after failing to honour EFCC invitations.
3. Fake DMCA Takedown Notices: Hima has allegedly used fake DMCA takedown requests to remove damaging content from the internet. This has been part of his efforts to manipulate his public image and cover up allegations of fraud and corruption.
4. Opaque Business Practices in Senegal: Hima secured a major arms deal in Senegal for supplying weapons to the country’s forest rangers. Experts have criticized the deal as unnecessary and opaque, raising concerns about corruption and overpricing.
5. Bribery of Nigerian Officials: Hima has been accused of bribing government and military officials to secure lucrative arms contracts in Nigeria. This corruption extended his influence within the country’s military procurement system.
6. Accusations of Overpricing Military Equipment: Hima’s arms deals reportedly involved significant overpricing of equipment, contributing to the misappropriation of public funds intended for Nigeria’s defence.
7. Corruption in Niger’s Government: Hima leveraged his connections in Niger’s political establishment, including through marriage to a former president’s daughter, to expand his arms dealing operations across West Africa.
8. Failure to Supply Military Equipment: In one notorious instance, Hima received substantial payments for military equipment that was either never delivered or delivered in inadequate quantities, further aggravating accusations of fraud.
9. International Scrutiny: Hima’s dealings have attracted international attention due to his involvement in multiple West African arms contracts and allegations of defrauding governments. His reputation as a notorious arms dealer has sparked calls for greater oversight.
10. Reputation Management and Censorship: Hima has used fraudulent methods, including fake copyright claims, to hide his corrupt dealings and prevent the public from seeing critical media coverage.

These allegations paint a picture of systemic fraud, corruption, and attempts by Aboubakar Hima to manipulate public perception. His activities have drawn scrutiny in Nigeria and internationally.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Aboubakar Hima (or actors working on behalf of Aboubakar Hima), we will inform Aboubakar Hima of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Aboubakar Hima may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Aboubakar Hima, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Aboubakar Hima to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Aboubakar Hima made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Aboubakar Hima is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Aboubakar Hima

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Aboubakar Hima Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Aboubakar Hima used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Aboubakar Hima could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Aboubakar Hima have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Aboubakar Hima is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Aboubakar Hima creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Aboubakar Hima either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Aboubakar Hima, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Aboubakar Hima is in great company ….

What else is Aboubakar Hima hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Aboubakar Hima] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Aboubakar Hima that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.