The US Justice Department announced on Thursday that it had arrested and charged the founder of an NFT project that it claims “rug pulled” holders and defrauded them of $2.9 million in cryptocurrency. Aurelien Michel, 24, the founder of the Ethereum NFT collection Mutant Ape Planet, was arrested last night by federal authorities at JFK airport in New York City on wire fraud charges. Michel, a French national, currently resides in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is the third time federal prosecutors have pursued charges against organisers of so-called NFT rug pull schemes, in which the creators of an NFT project sell NFTs on false promises of community benefits, utility, and financial perks, only to abandon the project and steal investors’ funds.
