The developer of the popular Ethereum NFT collection- Mutant Ape Planet was taken into custody in New York for allegedly pocketing investors’ money in a classic rug pull style.
As per the statement released to the media, a criminal complaint was filed against 24-year-old French citizen Aurelien Michel residing in the United Arab Emirates [UAE], for defrauding purchasers of “Mutant Ape Planet”, a type of digital asset, of more than $2.9 million in cryptocurrency.
Michel was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport. His initial appearance is scheduled for this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge James R. Cho.
Digital assets known as Mutant Ape Planet were kept on the Ethereum blockchain. Each NFT issued by Mutant Ape Planet was distinct, freely transferable, and granted buyers sole ownership.
The unique digital collectibles were advertised with claims of special benefits that customers would get. These advantages included exclusive chances to make extra investments, giveaways, gifts, and other perks.
The complaint stated that although buyers sent their cryptocurrencies and received the NFT, their funds were instead transferred from the Mutant Ape Planet project to wallets under the defendant Aurelien Michel’s control.
Michel also reportedly admitted to “rug pull,” through social media but blamed the community of NFT purchasers for his actions, stating, “We never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.”
In 2022. NFT was no longer the red hot item for the mainstream market as the hype had considerably cooled down but that didn’t prevent some of the so-called influencers and wealthy figures to fill up the space with horrid collections as well as even scamming users.
2022 Was Rifed With Celebrities Endorsing Horrid NFT Collections
The most infamous among them was none other than former US president Donald Trump’s Trump Digital Trading Cards
Despite being a vocal crypto-hater, Trump announced a shoddy and potentially plagiarized NFT project in December that consisted of 45,000 self-themed trading cards.
The Trump NFT initiative was considered successful regardless of whether investors who first purchased in are still in the black or not because it made roughly $4.5 million from the original sales and continues to receive a 10% creator fee on sales on secondary markets.
Another notable example is OnlyFans Model Vanessa Sierra, who was recently shown to have defrauded investors by withdrawing the 127 ether put in a phony NFT collection named SmolBoyz Land.