A Frenchman was arrested at New York airport on January 4, 2023. He is accused by the US Department of Justice of having set up an NFT scam, and of having recovered nearly $ 3 million in crypto- currency.
NFTs have made a lot of people rich. Among them, we must of course count Beeple, the artist who sold the most expensive NFT in history, at 69 million dollars. But there are also a large number of scammers who have tried their luck with non fungible tokens.
It would seem that the last of them is a Frenchman. As reported by BFMTV on January 6, 2023, Aurélien Michel, a 24-year-old French developer, was arrested at John Kennedy airport in New York on January 4. He is accused of setting up a scam that cost buyers of his NFTs more than $2.9 million. A hell of a fortune – and a scam punishable by several years in prison.
A fraudulent collection of NFTs
Aurélien Michel’s Mutant Ape Planet collection is inspired by the famous Mutant Ape Yacht Club, whose NFTs are worth up to several million euros. Aurélien Michel promised buyers of his Mutant Ape Planet that they would have access to exclusive promotions and investment opportunities. The collection, launched in January 2022 on OpenSea, has more than 6,000 NFTs.
However, after buying their NFT, Aurélien Michel’s clients would never have received the promised rewards. The US Department of Justice also specifies that once the money was paid, the developer would have transferred the project funds to his personal wallet, and would have ceased all communication. ” In total, more than $2.9 million worth of cryptocurrency was embezzled the ministry said.
Before closing shop for good, Aurélien Michel would however have sent a last message to buyers, with whom he exchanged on a courier service. The developer reportedly admitted to making a “ rug sweater “, a type of scam where investors are made ” remove the rug from under your feet “, and never receive the expected counterparties while the founders leave with the fund. Aurélien Michel would however have justified his act, explaining that he had ” never intended to scam anyone, but that the community had become too toxic “. Not sure the excuse holds up in court.