The $2.7 million divorce of crypto investors will not go unpunished. Scammers will get what they deserve.
Three 23-year-old British citizens are accused of fraud and money laundering in the amount of $ 2.7 million due to a fraudulent NFT project. Mohamed-Amin Acha, Mohamed Rilaz Walid and Daoud Hassan attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies after they deceived investors into investing in an NFT collection called "Evolved Apes".
This NFT collection presents digital images of cartoon Neanderthals in thousands of different variations and images. According to OpenSea, the "Evolved Apes" suite has about 10,000 NFTs.
At the time of active promotion of the project, the official account of the developer under the pseudonym "Evil Ape" claimed that the project needed investment to develop a video game based on these NFTs, which should have increased the cost of the latter. Of course, investors were quickly found, but just as quickly regretted that they had contacted the project.
In 2021, the entire trio disappeared, along with the project's Twitter account* and official website. Anonymous researchers have left some clues about how much money the scammers stole from investors. According to them, the catch of crypto scammers amounted to about $ 2.7 million. The criminals laundered the stolen funds through several cryptocurrency transactions and transferred them to their personal accounts.
"The creators and promoters of the Evolved Apes project have publicly pledged to use the funds raised to develop a video game that they say will add value to NFT," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said. "However, after the sale of NFT and receiving large sums from investors, the project was abandoned, and Acha, Walid and Hassan appropriated all the money for themselves."
The trio implemented a so-called "Rug Pull" scheme, in which creators first advertise their digital product, such as tokens or NFTs, sell it, and then drop the project after receiving funds. As a result, victims are left without money, but with useless digital goods that cost nothing.
All participants in the scheme are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, but the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In addition, the document of the US Department of Justice does not say anything about the detention of scammers. Probably, all of them are currently at large, and they will be arrested only with the assistance of British law enforcement agencies. Of course, if the entire trio still lives in the UK.
Three 23-year-old British citizens are accused of fraud and money laundering in the amount of $ 2.7 million due to a fraudulent NFT project. Mohamed-Amin Acha, Mohamed Rilaz Walid and Daoud Hassan attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies after they deceived investors into investing in an NFT collection called "Evolved Apes".
This NFT collection presents digital images of cartoon Neanderthals in thousands of different variations and images. According to OpenSea, the "Evolved Apes" suite has about 10,000 NFTs.
At the time of active promotion of the project, the official account of the developer under the pseudonym "Evil Ape" claimed that the project needed investment to develop a video game based on these NFTs, which should have increased the cost of the latter. Of course, investors were quickly found, but just as quickly regretted that they had contacted the project.
In 2021, the entire trio disappeared, along with the project's Twitter account* and official website. Anonymous researchers have left some clues about how much money the scammers stole from investors. According to them, the catch of crypto scammers amounted to about $ 2.7 million. The criminals laundered the stolen funds through several cryptocurrency transactions and transferred them to their personal accounts.
"The creators and promoters of the Evolved Apes project have publicly pledged to use the funds raised to develop a video game that they say will add value to NFT," the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said. "However, after the sale of NFT and receiving large sums from investors, the project was abandoned, and Acha, Walid and Hassan appropriated all the money for themselves."
The trio implemented a so-called "Rug Pull" scheme, in which creators first advertise their digital product, such as tokens or NFTs, sell it, and then drop the project after receiving funds. As a result, victims are left without money, but with useless digital goods that cost nothing.
All participants in the scheme are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, but the accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
In addition, the document of the US Department of Justice does not say anything about the detention of scammers. Probably, all of them are currently at large, and they will be arrested only with the assistance of British law enforcement agencies. Of course, if the entire trio still lives in the UK.
