The creators of the Baller Ape Club NFT collection pulled a rug pull that they had already planned. This led the DOJ to say that they would be charged with a crime. A federal prosecutor is going after an NFT “rug pull” operation for the second time. This time, three more people who haven’t been named are being accused.
Le Anh Traun, who is from Vietnam, is the defendant in this case. He is accused of planning to commit wire fraud and international money laundering. Traun is accused of taking $2.6 million from the Baller Ape NFTs mint, deleting the project’s website, and laundering the money by turning it into different cryptocurrencies and moving it across different blockchains (a practice known as “chain-hopping”). Traun has said that the claims are false.
Traun could spend up to 40 years in prison if he is found guilty of the crimes listed above. It comes after the DOJ looked into the companies that made the Frosties NFT collection earlier this year. U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison called these examples of bad behavior by Web3:
In the end, these examples show that some scammers use current terms to try to trick people, but all they really want is their money. We will keep working with law enforcement to teach and protect potential investors about both traditional and popular investments.
The post The founder of the Baller Ape Club NFT could go to prison for up to 40 years appeared first on NFT News Pro.