The duo have been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering for allegedly promoting bogus NFTs to buyers earlier than abandoning the mission, shutting down their web site, and absconding with $1.1 million in digital funds.
They took the digital cash and ran.
Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District Thursday charged two 20-year-olds in reference to an alleged NFT rip-off.
Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna have been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering for allegedly promoting bogus NFTs to buyers earlier than abandoning the mission, shutting down their web site, and absconding with $1.1 million in digital funds.
NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are digital belongings supposedly made distinctive and subsequently scarce via block-chain expertise. In recent times NFTs have fueled a growth in gross sales of digital artwork.
“The trending market and demand for NFT investments has not solely drawn the eye of actual artists, however rip-off artists as properly,” Homeland Safety Investigations Particular Agent In Cost Ricky Patel mentioned in an announcement. “The arrested thieves allegedly hid behind on-line identities the place they promised buyers rewards, giveaways, and unique alternatives earlier than implementing their ‘rug pull’ scheme – leaving buyers with empty pockets and no reputable funding.”
Prosecutors say the pair had pulled up stakes on their so-called “Frosties” collection of NFTs — deleting the web site and transferring the $1.1 million throughout a number of digital wallets — inside hours of promoting out the digital tokens.
Nguyen and Llacuna have been planning to repeat the digital fly-by-night act with a March 26 NFT drop referred to as “Embers”, prosecutors mentioned.
The pair resist 20 years in jail in convicted.
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