Mutant Ape Planet NFT developer arrested for fraud: All you need to know

• Aurelien Michel, the creator of Mutant Ape Planet, has been arrested successful New York.
• Michel is being charged with defrauding investors to the tune of $2.9 million.

U.S authorities person arrested the antheral down the Mutant Ape Planet NFT project, which is simply a knock-off of the fashionable Mutant Ape Yacht Club [MAYC] NFT collection. 24-year-old French nationalist Aurelien Michel was arrested erstwhile helium landed astatine John F. Kennedy airdrome successful New York. 

Mutant Ape Planet creator charged with fraud

According to a press release by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York connected 5 January, prosecutors person alleged that Michel perpetrated a “fraudulent rug pull” strategy and subsequently defrauded investors to the tune of $2.9 million. 

The prosecutors alleged:

“As portion of the scheme, NFTs were marketed to purchasers, who were falsely promised galore rewards and benefits designed to summation request for, and the worth of, their recently acquired NFTs. After selling retired of the NFTs, the purchasers were “rug pulled” arsenic nary of the promised benefits were provided.” 

The prosecutors person further alleged that cryptocurrencies worthy millions, were diverted for Michel’s idiosyncratic use. These were proceeds from the merchantability of the Mutant Ape Planet NFTs. The apprehension progressive aggregate agencies of the United States, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). 

Project creator admitted to orchestrating rug pull

According to the prosecutors, Aurelien Michel allegedly admitted to orchestrating the rug propulsion connected the community’s Discord server. He utilized a fake sanction to marque the pursuing confession:

“We ne'er intended to rug but the assemblage went mode excessively toxic.”

Homeland Security cause Ivan J. Arvelo stated that the developers had promised respective deliverables to purchasers astatine the clip of investment. Moreover, Internal Revenue Service cause Thomas Fattorusso stated that Michel defrauded investors by making mendacious representations of giveaways, tokens with staking features, and merchandise collections.

According to information from CoinStats, Mutant Ape Planet had a level terms of 0.01 ETH astatine property time, and the full measurement stood astatine 568.59 ETH. Interestingly, the project’s trading measurement has skyrocketed to implicit 4400% implicit the past 24 hours. Community members person taken implicit the project. They are reportedly attempting to bring it backmost to life, astatine the clip of writing.