Former EA Guingamp midfielder Coco Michel has just pleaded guilty to an NFT scam case.
Those interested in NFT tokens have many platforms to purchase from. But if these tokens are authentication certificates available on the Blockchain, and therefore in theory unfalsifiable, they also attract many scammers. The proof again this week with Coco Michel’s son, Aurélien Michel, who lured his victims by promising them a collection called “Mutants Ape Planet”. Before leaving with the crate!
Aurélien Michel risks up to 5 years in prison
Who would have thought that Coco Michel’s name would come back in the news because of a scam based on NFTs? However, this is exactly what is happening with the indictment in New York of his 25-year-old son, Aurélien Michel. Arrested at the beginning of the year at the airport, as he was preparing to leave the country, he is accused of “ of criminal association with a view to committing acts of electronic fraud. »
He has since been released under judicial supervision, and has just pleaded guilty to this charge. He therefore faces up to 5 years in prison, while he will have to pay 1.4 million dollars to the courts, a sum which has already been recovered by the latter.
3 million euros stolen
The scam in question involved the sale of a collection of NFTs reproducing those of the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club, but this time in the form of mutants or zombies. He and his accomplices thus managed to recover from investors a sum of 3 million euros for the “Mutants Ape Planet” collection.
Once this money was in their pocket, they carried out a “rug pull”. An expression used in the world of cryptocurrency when the leaders of a project abandon it and flee with the money entrusted to them. But the crime didn’t pay this time.
Source : Le Figaro, The Parisian
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