Mutant Ape Planet creator arrested in NY for alleged $2.9M NFT ‘fraud’

The developer of a Mutant Ape Yacht Membership knock-off assortment — Mutant Ape Planet — has been arrested in New York, charged with allegedly “defrauding” traders of $2.9 million in a “rug pull scheme.”

The arrest came about on Jan. 4 on the John F. Worldwide Airport in New York, with homeland safety agent Ivan J. Arvelo alleging that French nationwide “Aurelien Michel perpetrated a rug pull scheme” and stole “practically $3 million from traders for his personal private use,” stating:

“Purchasers of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs thought they were investing in a trendy new collectible, but they were deceived and received none of the promised benefits”

Internal Revenue Service agent Thomas Fattorusso was also cited in a press release from the Department of Justice, alleging that “Michel defrauded investors by making false representations of, amongst other things, giveaways, tokens with staking features, and merchandise collections,” before withdrawing the funds once the NFTs were sold out.

According to the statement, Michel is understood to have admitted to the community via a social media chat that he had perpetrated a rug pull, saying “we never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.”

The collection — a knock-off of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collection — consists of 6,797 NFTs stored on the Ethereum blockchain with 567 Ether (ETH) price of sales however has seen its common value and gross sales quantity crater because it launched in Jan. 2022.

Gross sales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT assortment. Supply: Opensea

Following the arrest, holders of the gathering have been sharing their facet of the story by way of Twitter, noting that James had tried guilty his departure on the neighborhood who have been changing into skeptical because of the lack of exercise.

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