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