TL; DR
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Aurelien Michel, creator of the ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFT project, pleads guilty to fraud charges, becoming the first fraudster (in the US) to be convicted of pulling the rug on an NFT project.
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Ol’ Mish raked in ~$3 million from sales of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs after promising buyers that in return they would get access to giveaways, merchandise collections, and tokens with staking features – they didn’t.
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Aurelien now risks a prison sentence of up to five years.
Full story
Carpet pulls.
It’s a story as old as time:
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Dad says he’ll take you camping (he won’t)
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Mom says: “we have Coca Cola at home” (it is R.C)
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Your partner tells you “you can make a Fedora” (You can’t. Alone.) Britney can do that)
Here’s the thing:
While these are all blatant erosions of trust – none of them are crimes.
But in the world of crypto (particularly NFTs), this kind of unfulfilled promise – combined with the exchange of money – becomes wire fraud.
That was the theory at least – until Tuesday – when the time came officially (awww 
):
Aurelien Michel, creator of the ‘Mutant Ape Planet’ NFT project, pleads guilty to fraud charges, becoming the first fraudster (in the US) to be convicted of pulling the rug on an NFT project.
This is what he did:
Ol’ Mish raked in ~$3 million from sales of Mutant Ape Planet NFTs after promising buyers that in return they would gain access to giveaways, merchandise collections, and tokens with staking features.
(They didn’t).
To make matters worse, Aurelien was even brazen enough to blame the collection’s “toxic” community for his decision to run off with their money:
“We never intended to carpet, but the community became far too toxic”
Fortunately, the “toxic” atmosphere of a community is not a good legal defense, and Aurelien now faces up to five years in prison.
