Three Charged in U.S. for Involvement in Evolved Apes NFT Scam

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced today that it has charged three individuals in connection with a non-fungible (NFT) token rugpull from 2021 involving Evolved Apes.

The individuals facing charges are Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh, and Daood Hassan, who are accused of wire fraud and money laundering, as stated in a release from the SDNY’s office.

Evolved Apes was a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs that claimed to offer a videogame that was never delivered. The anonymous developer known as Evil Ape disappeared a week after the launch, taking 798 ether (equivalent to $3 million today, $2.7 million at the time) from the project’s funds.

“The defendants orchestrated a scheme to artificially inflate the value of digital artwork by making false promises regarding the development of a videogame,” stated U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “They allegedly misappropriated investor funds, failed to deliver the promised game, and kept the proceeds. While digital art is a new concept, the laws against deceitful practices for financial gain still apply.”

In cryptocurrency jargon, this type of deceitful tactic is known as a rug pull, a form of exit scam where developers raise money from investors by selling tokens or NFTs and then abruptly abandon the project, absconding with the collected funds.

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