{"id":63190,"date":"2022-03-26T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-26T09:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=63190"},"modified":"2022-03-26T09:00:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T09:00:41","slug":"nft-rug-pull-doj-charges-two-people-in-million-dollar-scheme-to-defraud-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=63190","title":{"rendered":"NFT Rug Pull: DOJ Charges Two People in Million-Dollar Scheme to Defraud Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nft-rug-pull.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium_large size-medium_large wp-post-image\" alt=\"DOJ Charges Two People in Million-Dollar NFT Rug Pull Scheme\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two people allegedly behind a million-dollar non-fungible token (NFT) \u201crug pull\u201d scheme. They abandoned the NFT project within hours after selling out, deactivated the website, and transferred over $1 million in crypto to the wallets they controlled, the justice department explained.<br \/>\n<br \/><\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<h2>NFT Purchasers Defrauded in a Rug Pull Scam<\/h2>\n<p>\n<br \/>\nThe U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that two 20-year-olds have been charged in a \u201cnon-fungible token (NFT) fraud and money-laundering scheme.\u201d The defendants, Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna, allegedly defrauded purchasers of NFTs advertised as \u201cFrosties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, on or about Jan. 9, the defendants \u201cabandoned the Frosties NFT project within hours after selling out of Frosties NFTs, deactivated the Frosties website, and transferred approximately $1.1 million in cryptocurrency proceeds from the scheme to various cryptocurrency wallets under their control in multiple transactions designed to obfuscate the original source of funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Mr. Nguyen and Mr. Llacuna promised investors the benefits of the Frosties NFTs, but when it sold out, they pulled the rug out from under the victims, almost immediately shutting down the website and transferring the money.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nNguyen and Llacuna were arrested in Los Angeles, California, as they prepared to sell a second set of NFTs advertised as \u201cEmbers,\u201d the DOJ noted.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department believes that Embers is \u201canother fraud scheme,\u201d noting that it was expected to launch on or around March 26 and anticipated to generate approximately $1.5 million in cryptocurrency proceeds.<\/p>\n<p>The defendants \u201care each charged with one count of commit wire fraud \u2026 and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering,\u201d the DOJ said, noting that each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What do you think about this NFT rug pull case? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wpematico_credit\"><small>Powered by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wpematico.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two people allegedly behind a million-dollar non-fungible token (NFT) \u201crug pull\u201d scheme. They abandoned the NFT project within hours after selling out, deactivated the website, and transferred over $1 million in crypto to the wallets they controlled, the justice department explained. NFT Purchasers Defrauded in a Rug [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}