DOJ: NFT Fraudsters Defraud Investors of $22 Million in Crypto

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — A Beverly Hills man was among two people indicted on federal charges related to various online scams that bilked investors out of more than $22 million in cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Gabriel Hay, 23, of Beverly Hills, and Gavin Mayo, 23, of Thousand Oaks, were each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, stalking, and two counts of wire fraud, prosecutors said.

Hay and Mayo are accused of engaging in “rugpulls,” in which the creator of a non-fungible token (an NFT, a kind of digital asset) solicits people to invest in the projects but then abruptly cancels the project and keeps the money.

The pair sponsored several such projects between 2021 and 2024. Among them were the “Vault of Gems NFT,” which they claimed was the first NFT project “to be pegged to a hard asset.” Instead of pursuing a roadmap they laid out for that project, they abandoned it after collecting millions in funds from investors, prosecutors said.

The pair also allegedly tried to conceal their activities by trying to hide their involvement in some of the projects, instead identifying other people as the owners. Prosecutors said that when a project manager involved in an NFT project exposed Hay and Mayo as the people behind it, the defendants allegedly “embarked on a harassment campaign against the project manager, sending or causing the sending of messages to the project manager and his parents for the purpose of intimidating him and his family and causing them great emotional distress.”

The defendants face up to 20 years in prison for each of the conspiracy and wire fraud counts, and five years on the stalking count.

City News Service contributed to this report.

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