Nfts
FBI Cracks Down on NFT Monkey Trading | Natacha Doris
Three British individuals have been charged by the FBI for their “Evolved Apes” NFT scam, which left investors hanging under false pretenses.
Three individuals from the United Kingdom have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering via a non-fungible token (NFT) scam. United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damien Williams and Deputy Director in Charge of the FBI’s New York Field Office, James Smith, announced Thursday, June 6, that Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh and Daood Hassan had been indicted for offenses related to their “Evolved Apes” project.
The NFT scam involved selling “Evolved Apes” digital artwork to customers, with the promise of developing a video game based on the NFTs, thereby increasing their value. However, the trio raised a significant amount of money and abandoned the project, shutting down the NFT website and laundering the profits through cryptocurrency transactions into their own bank accounts. The bait and switch system is known as “rug pulling.”
Williams said in a statement: “As alleged, the defendants ran a scam to drive up the price of digital artwork through false promises about developing a video game. They allegedly took investors’ funds, never developed the game, and pocketed the profits. »
He added: “Digital art may be new, but the old rules still apply: making false promises of money is illegal. As we allege, thousands of people believed these false promises and were lured into purchasing these NFTs, including here in the Southern District of New York. NFT fraud is not a game and those responsible will be held accountable.
The case will be decided by U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken. Each of the three British citizens has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and potentially faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison per count if proven guilty. The Southern District of New York’s Illicit Finance and Money Laundering Unit is handling the case, with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Samuel Raymond And Josiah Pertz responsible for the prosecution.
Smith said: “Ghosting customers without delivering on a promise not only reflects poor business integrity, but it also violates the implicit trust that buyers place in sellers when purchasing a product, whether that product is in a store or stored on a blockchain. »
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