{"id":64592,"date":"2023-11-15T04:25:35","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=64592"},"modified":"2023-11-15T04:25:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T08:25:38","slug":"mutant-ape-creator-pleads-guilty-to-3m-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/mutant-ape-creator-pleads-guilty-to-3m-fraud-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutant Ape Creator Pleads Guilty to $3M Fraud Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A guilty plea to charges of wire fraud exposes the developer of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection<\/a> to a maximum of five years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mutant Ape Creator Pleads Guilty to $3M Fraud Scheme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a New York federal court, the developer of the Mutant Ape Planet nonfungible token (NFT) collection, which imitated the Mutant Ape Yacht Club initiative by Yuga Labs, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eastern District of New York United States Attorney's Office announced in a statement on November 14 that French national Aurelien Michel pleaded guilty to masterminding a “rug pull” and confessed to stealing $3 million from investors in connection with the illegitimate Mutant Ape Planet NFTs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonfungible Token (NFT) Developer Pleads Guilty to an International Scheme to Defraud NFT Purchasers

Aurelien Michel Conspired to Steal From Purchasers of \u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFTs Through False Promises and Misrepresentations@HSINewYork\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> @IRSCI_NY<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/K3CzIb8dQD<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/p>— US Attorney EDNY (@EDNYnews) November 14, 2023<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/blockquote> \n\n\n\n

Michel and his accomplices, as indicted by prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ), engaged in the fraudulent promotion of NFTs to investors through the assurance of rewards and benefits to stimulate demand for the collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel and his associates, according to prosecutors, \u201cintentionally failed to deliver on these promises, diverting millions of dollars\u2019 worth of proceeds for their personal benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Michel purported to sell dream NFTs backed with rewards and benefits, he defrauded investors, turning their dream into a nightmare of deception and losses,\u201d stated Thomas M. Fattorusso, special agent in command of the criminal investigation for the Internal Revenue Service in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThere is no excusing this kind of greed, and today\u2019s guilty plea brings Michel one step closer to realizing his own nightmare \u2014 behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Michel was apprehended in New York on January 4, 2023, on suspicion of participating in the conspiracy. Michel admitted to the NFT collection's community via a social media conversation on January 5 that he had pulled a rug and stated, \u201cWe never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michel has agreed to dole out $1.4 million in restitution and is subject to a maximum penitentiary term of five years upon sentencing. Subsequent to its removal from the NFT platform OpenSea, the Mutant Ape Planet collection comprised 6,797 NFTs initially generated on the Ethereum blockchain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of February 2022, its value exceeded 320 Ether ETH in sales volume, which experienced a substantial decline by April 2022, a span of two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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S<\/em>ales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection between January 2022 and January 2023. Source: OpenSea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The collection had experienced a significant decline in average price and total sales volume by January 2023, coinciding with Michel's arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A guilty plea to charges of wire fraud exposes the developer of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection to a maximum of five years in prison. In a New York federal court, the developer of the Mutant Ape Planet nonfungible token (NFT) collection, which imitated the Mutant Ape Yacht Club initiative by Yuga Labs, pleaded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":64595,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[17212,5565],"class_list":["post-64592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nft-news","tag-mutant-ape-creator","tag-nft-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/GHT.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}