On January 4, the lead developer of Mutant Ape Planet was arrested in New York over claims of defrauding investors of an amount approximating $2.9M. The US security agents investigating Michael’s fraud case allege that the developer had enticed the investors to join his fraudulent scheme.
Aurelian Michel Allegations
A lawsuit filed on January 5 at the New York AG office accuses the French citizen Aurelian Michel and his counterparts of defrauding investors by hundreds of thousands. Michael was charged with trading the distinctive Mutant Ape Planet NFTs collection with fake information, assuring the investor’s high return on investment.
According to Homeland security personnel, Ivan J. Arvelo, the creator of the NFT under probe, had assured the investors of unattainable gains. Michael promised that a reward would accompany any purchase made by the investor and exceptional benefits linked to the NFT. Such benefits comprised access to other crypto assets, exclusive giveaways, merchandise deals, and a unique community crypto token.
Notably, Michael’s fraudulent action yielded the desired result. After selling all the Mutant Ape Planet NFTs, he acquired over $3M. Michael and the unnamed suspects later transferred the amount to other wallets bearing Michael’s details.
Remarks from the United States Authorities
Numerous tweets from the NFT community met Michael’s suspicious transfers of early NFTs gains to his account. He responded to the devastated investors using a fake Twitter account owned by the so-called “James.” In his tweet, he confessed to dragging investors into a rug-pull scheme centered on the Community Discord platform.
Following Michael’s action, the Department of Homeland Security collaborated with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and developed plans to take him into custody. The security agent’s plans gained fruition after arresting him immediately after landing at John F. Kennedy on January 4 from his home in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the head of the special agent in charge of the investigation team, Thomas Fattorusso, Michael’s misconduct had nothing to do with the NFT community. His action was based on personal gains, as alleged by the prosecutor, to bear the cost of making false assurances to the crypto investors.
The NFT community is positive of Michael’s prosecution before Judge James R. Cho at the US Magistrate Court.
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