In an interesting development, the creator of the fraudulent NFT collection “Mutant Ape Planet” Aurelien Michel is on the verge of avoiding a prison sentence following a recent court ruling. However, the defendant has been ordered to forfeit more than $1 million as punishment for conducting a carpet pull.
Mutant Ape maker pays $15,000 and escapes jail time on technicality
In January 2023, the United States Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York filed a complaint against Michel accusing the latter of defrauding unsuspecting investors of $2.9 million through the sale of the “Mutant Ape Planet” NFTs, modeled after the popular “Mutant Ape Yacht Club” collection.
The French national had marketed these digital assets to various individuals in 2022 with promises of various rewards, such as merchandise and metaverse land, intended to increase the value of these NFTs upon acquisition.
However, Michel went back on these promises when he committed a carpet-pulling campaign, diverting all money raised from investors to personal expenses. In November 2023, the evil NFT creator arrived has entered a guilty plea on the bank fraud charges brought by U.S. prosecutors, resulting in a possible five-year prison sentence.
However, at one Bloomberg report on November 1, US judge Margo Brodie imposed a one-month prison sentence on Michel, to be served after the defendant’s arrest in 2022. In addition, the Frenchman is expected to pay a fine of $15,000 and to pay $1, will forfeit 4 million of his assets.
Judge Brodie’s sentence is significantly light compared to the prosecution’s request for a 37-month prison sentence. In his defense, Michel’s lawyers had argued that he would be spared a prison sentence because all investors did receive a “digital work of art,” consistent with the definition of an NFT designed to provide unique ownership of various digital art forms. to confirm.
The American judge seemed to agree with the defense counsel when she told Michel:
The amount of loss is unclear. There is no doubt that you and your co-conspirators ultimately made or at least received $2.9 million from the project. But there is also no question that anyone who has purchased an NFT has received or received something of value. It is unclear what that value is.
According to Bloomberg, Michel’s case is one of three U.S. NFT fraud indictments 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, marking a 17.47% gain over values recorded from September. Last month’s reported sales volume 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