{"id":22174,"date":"2024-06-07T14:00:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinengineer.io\/?p=22174"},"modified":"2024-06-07T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T06:37:47","slug":"three-britons-accused-of-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/three-britons-accused-of-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-in-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Britons Accused of NFT Fraud and Money Laundering in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three British people connected to the nonfungible token <strong>&#8220;Evolved Apes&#8221;<\/strong> have been accused in the United States of allegedly planning to commit wire fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_71 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/three-britons-accused-of-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-in-the-us\/#Allegations_and_Scheme_Details\" title=\"Allegations and Scheme Details\">Allegations and Scheme Details<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/three-britons-accused-of-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-in-the-us\/#Execution_of_the_Fraud\" title=\"Execution of the Fraud\">Execution of the Fraud<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/three-britons-accused-of-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-in-the-us\/#Attempts_to_Cover_Up\" title=\"Attempts to Cover Up\">Attempts to Cover Up<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Allegations_and_Scheme_Details\"><\/span>Allegations and Scheme Details<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>The United States Attorney&#8217;s Office in the Southern District of New York reportedly said in a June 6 statement that the defendants, <strong>Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh, and Daood Hassan,<\/strong> allegedly drove up the prices of <strong>10,000 NFTs<\/strong> on false promises that they would create a video game before transferring the funds out and abandoning the project.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Digital art is new, but old regulations still apply: it is unlawful to make false promises for money [&#8230;] <strong>NFT<\/strong> fraud is no game; those guilty will be held responsible,&#8221;<\/em> said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.<\/p>\n<p>FBI Assistant Director James Smith added: <em>&#8220;Ghosting customers without fulfilling a promise not only reflects poor business integrity, it also violates the implicit trust buyers place in sellers when purchasing a product.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Allegedly stolen from the rug pull, around 800 Ether (ETH) valued at $2.7 million at the time was taken overall.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Execution_of_the_Fraud\"><\/span>Execution of the Fraud<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><em>&#8220;They apparently pocketed the money, never developed the game, and took investor money,&#8221;<\/em> Williams added.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office thinks that Atcha, Waleedh, and Hassan hauled in more than $2 million from <strong>Evolved Ape<\/strong> NFT sales on the first day, which fell in the heart of &#8220;NFT summer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney said the <em>&#8220;roadmap&#8221;<\/em> and <em>&#8220;phase&#8221;<\/em> subsections on its website helped to give the NFT initiative credibility. <em>&#8220;Phase 5&#8221;<\/em> promised that only Evolved Ape NFT holders would be able to access a fighting game that Evolved Apes would release.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/institutional-memecoin-investments-have-increased-since-january\/\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This Might Interest You:\u00a0<\/span>Institutional Memecoin Investments Have Increased Since January<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Investors were left stranded when the Evolved Apes website was removed less than two weeks later, on October 5, 2021.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Attempts_to_Cover_Up\"><\/span>Attempts to Cover Up<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Fascinatingly, Waleedh moved the pilfered money to a personal, custodied wallet address, but the bitcoin exchange stopped him from taking the money out.<\/p>\n<p>Originally intending to <em>&#8220;investigate the source,&#8221;<\/em> the customer support staff reenabled the withdrawal feature when Waleedh falsely claimed he needed the money to cover his grandmother&#8217;s cancer treatment, according to the U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p>The three defendants are expected to turn over $875,850 in Tether (USDT) kept at wallet address &#8220;0x519&#8230;6ed70.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Charges of money laundering and wire fraud each carry a potential 20-year jail term in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three British people connected to the nonfungible token &#8220;Evolved Apes&#8221; have been accused in the United States of allegedly planning to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Allegations and Scheme Details The United States Attorney&#8217;s Office in the Southern District of New York reportedly said in a June 6 statement that the defendants, Mohamed-Amin Atcha,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6695,6612,971],"class_list":["post-22174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genel","tag-evolved-ape","tag-non-fungible-token-nft","tag-scam"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Three Britons Accused of NFT Fraud and Money Laundering in the US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Three British nationals face charges in the US for allegedly committing wire fraud and money laundering through the &quot;Evolved Apes&quot; NFT project, 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