{"id":84544,"date":"2023-11-14T17:38:48","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T22:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/crypto\/mutant-ape-planet-nft-designer-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-faces-5-years-in-prison\/"},"modified":"2023-11-14T17:38:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T22:38:50","slug":"mutant-ape-planet-nft-designer-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-faces-5-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=84544","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFT Designer Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Faces 5 Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Aurelien Michel, the 25-year-old designer of \u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFTs, pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A $3 million fraud scheme<\/h2>\n

Michel admitted to luring in NFT investors with promises of giveaways, tokens, merchandise collections, and staking features. He then abandoned these promises, carrying out a \u201crug-pull scheme\u201d worth millions of dollars in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the NFTs were sold out, Michel allegedly ceased communications and withdrew purchasers\u2019 funds from the company\u2019s cryptocurrency wallets, lining his pockets with nearly $3 Million of investors\u2019 money,\u201d stated Thomas Fattorusso, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service \u2013 Criminal Investigation, New York.<\/p>\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 Fattoruso said. \u00a0\u201cThere is no excusing this kind of greed, and today\u2019s guilty plea brings Michel one step closer to realizing his own nightmare\u2014behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one else to blame<\/h2>\n

Michel, a French citizen residing in the United Arab Emirates, was originally arrested in January 2023 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The \u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFTs were a knockoff of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs and sold on the Ethereum blockchain for nearly $500 per unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichel can no longer blame the NFT community for his criminal behavior,\u201d said Fattorusso.\u00a0 \u201cHis arrest means he will now face the consequences of his own actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged scammer admitted to the fraudulent scheme in a Discord chat with potential buyers under the alias James, writing that \u201cwe never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI recognize that our behavior led to this,\u201d he shared, referring to his currently unidentified co-conspirators.<\/p>\n

Holding fraudsters accountable becomes a priority<\/h2>\n

\u201cWith today\u2019s guilty plea, Michel has admitted that he conspired with others to defraud consumers eager to participate in a new digital asset market,\u201d stated United States Attorney Breon Peace.\u00a0 \u201cOur Office is acutely aware that criminal actors are taking advantage of the constant pace of innovation in the digital asset space and the investing public\u2019s desire to become involved in cryptocurrency to perpetrate large-scale frauds. Holding these criminal actors accountable and protecting the public is, and will remain, a priority of this Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michel has agreed to forfeit $1.4 million and faces up to five years in prison. It is currently unclear when his sentencing is scheduled to take place.<\/p>\n

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Aurelien Michel, the 25-year-old designer of \u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFTs, pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday. A $3 million fraud scheme Michel admitted to luring in NFT investors with promises of giveaways, tokens, merchandise collections, and staking features. He then abandoned these promises, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-84544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFT Designer Pleads Guilty to Fraud, Faces 5 Years in Prison | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aurelien Michel, the 25-year-old designer of \u201cMutant Ape Planet\u201d NFTs, pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud at the federal courthouse in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=84544\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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