Arrested Mutant Ape Planet Founder May Have Pulled Off Multiple Other NFT Rug Pulls

NFT

Aurelien Michel, the founding father of NFT assortment Mutant Ape Planet, was arrested this week by federal authorities for allegedly orchestrating an “NFT rug pull” rip-off. However which will have been simply one among many scams that Michel pulled off.

On-chain knowledge means that Michel made away with hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from a number of different related frauds, outstanding blockchain analyst ZachXBT alleged Friday.

ZachXBT related Michel’s Binance handle to accounts linked to 2 different outstanding NFT rug pulls, Vogue Ape NFT and Loopy Camels.

NFT rug pulls are schemes the place an NFT venture’s creators promote NFTs—typically 1000’s of them—on false guarantees of affiliated advantages and utility, solely to desert the venture (usually deleting Discord, Twitter, and different social channels) and make away with buyers’ funds.

I took a take a look at Aurelien’s CEX handle named within the criticism for Mutant Ape Planet

Utilizing it you’ll be able to see he’s doubtless a workforce member of the $1.1m rug pull @fashionapenft as nicely since he acquired $123k from the mint

And was additionally on the workforce for Loopy Camels $1.6m rug pull https://t.co/Gpb3LVkRXX pic.twitter.com/KcSMQu6aJF

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 6, 2023

Vogue Ape NFT’s founders collected $1.1 million from holders earlier than abandoning the venture; Loopy Camels made $1.6 million earlier than doing the identical.

On Wednesday, U.S. federal brokers arrested Michel—a 24 year-old French nationwide residing in Dubai—at JFK airport in New York Metropolis. Prosecutors have charged him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his position in allegedly rug pulling holders of his Mutant Ape Planet NFT.

That assortment made $2.9 million earlier than Michel abruptly pulled the plug on the venture, which had promised customers giveaways, tokens with staking options, and merchandise collections. None of these perks ever materialized.

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The DOJ’s criticism towards Michel, unsealed in a Brooklyn federal court docket yesterday, made no point out of Michel’s participation in every other alleged NFT rug pull schemes moreover Mutant Ape Planet.

ZachXBT used figuring out data concerning Michel’s cryptocurrency accounts referenced within the DOJ’s criticism to trace down the founder’s Binance account. That account was linked to a number of different allegedly fraudulent NFT initiatives.

How did I discover his CEX handle?

Effectively in case you go to the criticism it’s mentions 356.44 ETH was transferred to “crypto change 1” which is “one of many largest crypto change platforms” starting Feb 5 2022. pic.twitter.com/t3GhHz7dwq

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 6, 2023

Additional, the Loopy Camels web site, since deleted, hyperlinks the profiles of one of many venture’s co-founders to Michel’s Instagram account.

ZachXBT believes Michel’s alleged orchestration of a number of NFT scams utilizing the identical publicly traceable accounts signifies both a scarcity of concern of retribution, or an entire naivité as to the visibility of blockchain transactions.

“They [might] not have a primary understanding of how the blockchain works,” ZachXBT instructed Decrypt, “since they’re depositing the funds to their private CEX [centralized exchange] account, and shopping for costly NFTs they flaunt on social media.”

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The Justice Division alleged in its criticism towards Michel that the founder went as far as to overtly admit in a Mutant Ape Planet Discord channel that he had rugged buyers.

“We by no means meant to rug however the neighborhood went approach too poisonous,” Michel purportedly wrote.