Three British nationals have been charged in the US with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the “Evolved Apes” non-fungible token (NFT) scam.
These are Mohamed Amin Acha, Mohamed Relaz Waleed and Dawoud Hassan, who, according to US authorities, inflated the prices of 10,000 NFTs with false promises about developing a video game. They then allegedly embezzled the money and abandoned the project.
Nearly 800 Ethereum stolen
According to a statement from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, approximately 800 Ethereum (ETH), worth €2.5/$2.7 million at the time, were stolen. US Attorney Damian Williams stressed that “digital art may be new, but the old rules still apply: making false promises in exchange for money is illegal.” He added: “NFT fraud is not a game, and those responsible will be held accountable.”
FBI Assistant Director James Smith stressed the suspects' lack of integrity: “Disappearing customers without fulfilling their promise not only reflects poor business integrity, but also violates the implicit trust buyers place in sellers when purchasing a product.”
Evolved Ape NFTs went on sale on September 24, 2021 and raised over $2 million on the first day. The website Evolved Apes proposed a project with subsections such as “roadmap” and “stages,” claiming that a fighting game would be released exclusively for NFT holders. However, less than two weeks later, on October 5, 2021, the site was shut down, leaving investors empty-handed.
Transfer stolen funds to your personal wallet
What is noteworthy is that Walid transferred the stolen funds to his personal wallet address. Although the cryptocurrency exchange initially blocked the funds, Walid managed to reactivate the withdrawal option by making a false statement that he needed money to treat his grandmother for cancer.
Prosecutors are now demanding that the three suspects confiscate $875,850 in Tether (USDT), located at the wallet address “0x519…6ed70”. The conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering charges each carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
