Industry participants have once again suffered from fraud. The developer of the NFT Evolved Apes project deleted his Twitter account, the project's website, and disappeared with $2.7 million worth of ETH.
According to the Vice Motherboard publication, at the end of last week, concern began to grow among investors of the NFT Evolved Apes project. A few days after the launch of the project, an anonymous developer under the nickname Evil Ape disappeared, having previously deleted the official Twitter account and the project website. In addition, he withdrew 798 ETH worth $2.7 million from the project's wallet in several transactions.
According to the description of the Evolved Apes project on the OpenSea NFT market, this is a set of 10,000 unique NFTs locked up in the"land of lawlessness". NFT heroes "fight for survival, only the strongest monkey will win". The last words are a reference to the NFT game that the project creator planned to launch. The money received from the initial public sale of the NFT and commissions on the secondary market was intended for expenses related to the development of the project.
Investors in Evolved Ape noticed several worrying signs before the disappearance of the project's creator. As one of the investors told Motherboard, after the public sale of NFT on September 24, the statements posted on behalf of the project seemed suspiciously unprofessional, and some of the leaders disappeared from the arena. However, investors attributed this to the lack of experience of the project creators.
According to user Mike_Cryptobull, the Evolved Apes community discovered that the winners of the contest on social networks did not receive their prize NFTs from the project, and the artist was also not paid. Investor Mike_Cryptobull, who spent 3 ETH on 20 Evolved Apes, collected all the known facts about the project and the developer:
"What happened is this: Evil Ape washed its hands of us. He withdrew from the project's wallet all the ETH that was supposed to be used to pay for the work of artists, marketing companies and game development," he wrote in the report.
Despite the disappearance of all the money, the Evolved Apes community plans to further develop the project. Mike_Cryptobull announced in a report that he and the NFT owners will create a Fight Back Apes project based on Evolved Apes. Evolved Apes owners will automatically receive Fight Back Apes tokens.
The disappearance of the project's founder has not yet affected the Evolved Apes auction at OpenSea, where the collection is still being reviewed. Since the end of last week, when the first information about possible fraud appeared, more than 574 NFT sales were conducted on 13.9 ETH.
Fraud in the cryptocurrency industry, and especially DeFi and NFT, is not uncommon. In June, an anonymous team of developers of the DeFi project sold out their tokens, causing a collapse of the exchange rate, and disappeared. The creators of WhaleFarm stole $2.3 million worth of customers ' cryptocurrencies. Shortly before, a similar scam was committed by the developers of the DeFi Polywhale project.
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US authorities have tracked down three creators of the fraudulent crypto project Evolved Apes
The prosecutor's office of New York has charged three residents of the UK with creating a fraudulent NFT project Evolved Apes, which collected about $3 million from investors.
Three years after the discovery of the fraudulent cryptographic scheme Evolved Apes, the prosecutor's office identified its alleged organizers: Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rolaz Waleedh and Daood Hassan. They are charged with money laundering through cryptoassets and fraud using electronic means of communication. The men face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The infamous Evolved Apes scam scandal has rocked the crypto space in 2021. 10,000 unique collectible tokens were presented to investors, and in just a week the project was able to raise $2.9 million. However, just a few days after the launch of the project, an anonymous developer using the pseudonym Evil Ape disappeared with the investors ' funds. Evolved Apes ' official channels, including its website and social media accounts, have also been removed.
"The creators of Evolved Apes misled investors with false promises of profit, and this is a direct violation of federal law. The prosecutor's office will continue to fight fraudsters who abuse the trust of investors, regardless of the industry, including in the NFT market, " said Damian Williams, Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York.
Last year, the creator of another monkey — related NFT scam collection, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, was caught. French citizen Aurelien Michel confessed that he sold fake tokens and, after receiving $3 million, disappeared with this money.
According to the Vice Motherboard publication, at the end of last week, concern began to grow among investors of the NFT Evolved Apes project. A few days after the launch of the project, an anonymous developer under the nickname Evil Ape disappeared, having previously deleted the official Twitter account and the project website. In addition, he withdrew 798 ETH worth $2.7 million from the project's wallet in several transactions.
According to the description of the Evolved Apes project on the OpenSea NFT market, this is a set of 10,000 unique NFTs locked up in the"land of lawlessness". NFT heroes "fight for survival, only the strongest monkey will win". The last words are a reference to the NFT game that the project creator planned to launch. The money received from the initial public sale of the NFT and commissions on the secondary market was intended for expenses related to the development of the project.
Investors in Evolved Ape noticed several worrying signs before the disappearance of the project's creator. As one of the investors told Motherboard, after the public sale of NFT on September 24, the statements posted on behalf of the project seemed suspiciously unprofessional, and some of the leaders disappeared from the arena. However, investors attributed this to the lack of experience of the project creators.
According to user Mike_Cryptobull, the Evolved Apes community discovered that the winners of the contest on social networks did not receive their prize NFTs from the project, and the artist was also not paid. Investor Mike_Cryptobull, who spent 3 ETH on 20 Evolved Apes, collected all the known facts about the project and the developer:
"What happened is this: Evil Ape washed its hands of us. He withdrew from the project's wallet all the ETH that was supposed to be used to pay for the work of artists, marketing companies and game development," he wrote in the report.
Despite the disappearance of all the money, the Evolved Apes community plans to further develop the project. Mike_Cryptobull announced in a report that he and the NFT owners will create a Fight Back Apes project based on Evolved Apes. Evolved Apes owners will automatically receive Fight Back Apes tokens.
The disappearance of the project's founder has not yet affected the Evolved Apes auction at OpenSea, where the collection is still being reviewed. Since the end of last week, when the first information about possible fraud appeared, more than 574 NFT sales were conducted on 13.9 ETH.
Fraud in the cryptocurrency industry, and especially DeFi and NFT, is not uncommon. In June, an anonymous team of developers of the DeFi project sold out their tokens, causing a collapse of the exchange rate, and disappeared. The creators of WhaleFarm stole $2.3 million worth of customers ' cryptocurrencies. Shortly before, a similar scam was committed by the developers of the DeFi Polywhale project.
====
US authorities have tracked down three creators of the fraudulent crypto project Evolved Apes
The prosecutor's office of New York has charged three residents of the UK with creating a fraudulent NFT project Evolved Apes, which collected about $3 million from investors.
Three years after the discovery of the fraudulent cryptographic scheme Evolved Apes, the prosecutor's office identified its alleged organizers: Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rolaz Waleedh and Daood Hassan. They are charged with money laundering through cryptoassets and fraud using electronic means of communication. The men face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The infamous Evolved Apes scam scandal has rocked the crypto space in 2021. 10,000 unique collectible tokens were presented to investors, and in just a week the project was able to raise $2.9 million. However, just a few days after the launch of the project, an anonymous developer using the pseudonym Evil Ape disappeared with the investors ' funds. Evolved Apes ' official channels, including its website and social media accounts, have also been removed.
"The creators of Evolved Apes misled investors with false promises of profit, and this is a direct violation of federal law. The prosecutor's office will continue to fight fraudsters who abuse the trust of investors, regardless of the industry, including in the NFT market, " said Damian Williams, Prosecutor for the Southern District of New York.
Last year, the creator of another monkey — related NFT scam collection, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, was caught. French citizen Aurelien Michel confessed that he sold fake tokens and, after receiving $3 million, disappeared with this money.
