The United States Department of Justice says that it has charged the creator of “Mutant Ape Planet ” NFT, Aurelien Michel with defrauding investors of over $2.9 million in cryptocurrency.
The DOJ, in a statement released on Thursday, said that the creator of the Non-fungible tokens had promised investors of benefits which included added investments and giveaways, but had fulfilled none of these promises made.
The DOJ added that the accused, Michel had blamed the NFT buyers for influencing its actions.
“After selling out of the NFTs, the purchasers were ‘rug pulled’ … Millions worth of the NFT purchasers’ cryptocurrency was diverted for Michel’s benefit.” bitcoin.com reports.
Thomas Fattorusso, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge with the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Criminal Investigation team also said regarding the case “It is alleged that Michel defrauded investors by making false representations of, among other things, giveaways, tokens with staking features, and merchandise collections,
“Michel can no longer blame the NFT community for his criminal behavior. His arrest means he will now face the consequences of his own actions,” Fattorusso said.
The Mutant Ape Planet (MAP) is a collection of 6799 unique mutant apes. Each Mutant Ape Planet allows its owner to be part of an exclusive community giving different perks and experiences to its holders.
