U.S. Charges Three in Connection With Evolved Apes NFT Scam
They allegedly took investor funds, never developed the game, and pocketed the proceeds. Digital art may be new, but old rules still apply: making false promises for money is illegal
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced today that it has charged three individuals in connection with a non-fungible (NFT) token rugpull from 2021 known as Evolved Apes. Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh, and Daood Hassan have been charged with wire fraud and money laundering, according to a release from the SDNY's office.
Evolved Apes was a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs, which promised a videogame that never materialized, as the anonymous developer Evil Ape vanished a week after launch, siphoning 798 ether ($3 million at today's price, $2.7 million at the current time) from the project's funds. "The defendants ran a scam to drive up the price of digital artwork through false promises about developing a videogame," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "They allegedly took investor funds, never developed the game, and pocketed the proceeds. Digital art may be new, but old rules still apply: making false promises for money is illegal."
