Serious allegations of involvement in pumping and dumping schemes are piling up against the former head of OpenSea Ventures, Kevin Pawlak.
According to NFT ethicsa non-fungible token (NFT) related investigative news account onvarious highly questionable business transactions” and “pump-and-dump” schemes. NFT Ethics alleges that Pawlak allegedly committed the fraudulent activities through his pseudonymous identity “@0xSisyphus“ and “0xMagellan.”
The evidence against Pawlak was unearthed last month
NFT Ethics first made the allegations against Pawlak last month. At the time it was closed after a research that Pawlak was the owner of the X account @0xSisyphus. The X-based news outlet concluded after comparing the transactions and associated timestamps from pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth addresses.
Blockchain data indicates that an Ethereum address starting with “0xBB5B” registered domains such as kevinpawlak.eth, pavvlak.eth, pawlak.eth, and kevinpawlak.eth on October 4, 2021.
The NFT Ethics investigation found that both addresses:pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth—minted Zorbs tokens within a minute of each other, and sismo.eth DAO tokens within 10 minutes of each other.
With screenshots comparing the activities of the two addresses in question, NFT Ethics wrote:
“…the following timestamps match perfectly, and given the very limited activity of pawlak.eth, we have now taken into account most of their actions perfectly aligning with sisyphus.eth.”
NFT Ethics later added that several anonymous sources have confirmed that Pawlak is indeed the person behind the account Sisyphus. The news outlet also alleged that Pawlak played a “questionable role” in the $60 million AnubisDAO back pull in October 2021 and had a hand in a “Rollbit shill.”
An alternative theory for Anubis Rugpull
In a post 10 days after the initial allegations, NFT Ethics posted wire claiming that the Anubis incident was a “premeditated” trick of Sisyphus and that the stolen money was laundered with PEPE tokens.
According to NFT Ethics, Pawlak, under his pseudonym, allegedly “hyped the Anubis project on Discord a day before the rugpull,” which was recorded by a user. Pawlak claimed to have invested $420,000 in the project and promised to invest more the next day. At the time, the Anubis project funds were owned by Ethan Cheung, a 19-year-old.
When the project was run the next day, Cheung claimed to have received an email from Sisyphus containing a malicious PDF file that compromised his device and wallet. According to NFT Ethics, Cheung’s version of the story has been confirmed by several people. However, Sisyphus published a blog post allegedly “framing” Cheung for pulling the rug.
NFT Ethics concluded that Sisyphus likely orchestrated the Anubis Tapestry with a co-conspirator, adding:
“The role of Pawlak, Zim & Co. in the $60 million Anubis carpet and other PnD schemes deserves much more investigation. They have the intellectual/technical capacity to orchestrate such ‘hacks’ and we hope for an in-depth investigation into the origins of all their crypto/FIAT funds/purchases.”
Even more evidence has been revealed
In a follow-up post on October 5, NFT Ethics shared screenshots of chat logs from the Anubis team from October 27-29, 2021. From the chats, NFT Ethics concluded that Sisyphus was the “brains” behind the Anubis project, responsible for approving everything , from the formulation of X-messages to all technical and financial decisions.
NFT Ethics added:
“He conveniently spoofed his role in his timeline as ‘Sisyphus to handle the public face and help bring DAO members together,’ but he is the one in charge and calling the shots.”
NFT Ethics added even more screenshots to claim that Sisyphus masterminded the pulling of the Anubis carpet and framed Cheung to take the fall.
In their last post, which was reposted by blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, NFT Ethics noted:
“We refrained from posting this earlier, but the amount of silence on this topic is deafening. Because he is well connected, not many people dare to speak out about this fraudulent network of people.”
Lookonchain has also independently verified that the transaction timestamps are at the two addresses, pawlak.eth and sisyphus.eth, sync together. The platform added:
“The #Open sea executive is one of the largest PnD (Pump and Dump) in the field and is involved in market manipulation and scams. If this were true, it would be terrible.”
The allegations against Pawlak have been confirmed by a journalist at The Block, Tim Copeland, who said he confirmed Sisyphus’ identity through undisclosed sources.
It’s worth noting that former OpenSea product manager Nate Chastain was convicted of fraud and money laundering in an insider trading case in May 2023. Chastain was sentenced to three months in prison in August.
CryptoSlate contacted OpenSea for comment and an OpenSea spokesperson provided the following statement:
“Kevin is a former employee who left the company in June 2023. His scope was limited while at OpenSea, where he worked in a non-management role. We are not aware of his involvement in the projects in question. Additionally, we have no connection or information regarding the projects in question as they occurred prior to his time at OpenSea.”