In an interesting development, the creator of the “Mutant Ape Planet” NFT scam Aurelien Michel is set to avoid jail time following a recent court ruling. However, the defendant was ordered to forfeit more than $1 million in penalty for pulling the rug.
Mutant Ape creator pays $15,000 and escapes prison time on technical grounds
In January 2023, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York issued an indictment against Michel accusing the latter of defrauding unsuspecting investors of $2.9 million by selling “Mutant Ape Planet” NFTs, similar to the famous “Mutant Ape Yacht”. “Club” group.
The French national marketed these digital assets to several individuals in 2022 with promises of various rewards such as merchandise and Metaverse land designed to boost the value of NFTs upon acquisition.
However, Michel reneged on these promises when he pulled the rug, shifting all the money raised from investors to personal expenses. In November 2023, the creator of the malicious NFT pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges brought by US prosecutors resulting in a potential five-year prison sentence.
However, in A Bloomberg report On November 1, US Judge Margo Brody handed down a one-month prison sentence to Michel, which he served after the defendant was arrested in 2022. Furthermore, the Frenchman is expected to pay a fine of $15,000 in addition to forfeiture of 1.4 Million dollars of his fortune.
Judge Brodie’s sentence is considerably light compared to the prosecution’s request for a 37-month prison term. In his defense, Michel’s lawyers argued that he would be spared prison time because all investors received a “work of digital art” in line with the NFT definition designed to assert unique ownership of various forms of digital art.
The American judge seemed to be in league with the defense attorney when she told Michelle:
The extent of the loss is unclear. There is no doubt that you and your co-conspirators profited or at least received $2.9 million from the venture. But there’s also no dispute that everyone who bought an NFT got or received something of value. What this value is, is unclear.
According to Bloomberg, Michelle’s case is one of three US indictments for NFT fraud and the first to receive a court ruling.
NFT sales reach $356 million in October
according to Data from NFT data aggregator CryptoSlamTotal NFT sales in October rose to $356.62 million, representing a 17.47% increase over the values recorded in September. Reported sales volume for last month was generated from 7,231,056 transactions involving 964,210 unique sellers and 616,546 unique buyers.
Featured image from Bigney Law Firm, chart from Tradingview
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