The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has charged three individuals — Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh, and Daood Hassan — with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the 2021 “Evolved Apes” NFT rug pull scam.
Evolved Apes was a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs that promised buyers a video game, which never materialized. A week after launch, the anonymous developer known as “Evil Ape” disappeared with 798 Ethereum (ETH) worth $2.7 million at the time. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said:
The defendants ran a scam to drive up the price of digital artwork through false promises about developing a videogame. […] 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.
In the crypto world, this type of scam is known as a “rug pull”…
