Aurelien Michel, the individual behind the Mutant Ape Planet non-fungible token (NFT) series, a derivative of Yuga Labs' Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT project, has pleaded guilty in a New York federal court for involvement in a wire fraud conspiracy.
According to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, French national Aurelien Michel admitted to conspiring to commit "rug pulling" and acknowledged defrauding NFT investors of $3 million in connection with the fraudulent Planet of the Apes project. The Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors revealed that Michel and his co-conspirators lured investors with false promises of rewards and benefits linked to the NFTs, artificially inflating the demand for these tokens.
The prosecutors stated that Michel and his associates intentionally reneged on these assurances and diverted millions of dollars in proceeds for personal gain. Thomas M. Fattorusso, New York's Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigations, condemned Michel's actions, describing them as an act of deceit leading to significant financial losses for investors.
Michel was apprehended in New York on January 4, 2023, related to the fraudulent scheme. The DOJ reported that the day after his arrest, Michel admitted in social media chats within the NFT collectibles community that he had participated in rug pulling, attributing the action to growing toxicity within the community.
Post-sentencing, Michel could face a maximum of five years in prison and agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution. The Mutant Ape Planet collection, comprising 6,797 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain, has been removed from the OpenSea NFT platform. Initially lucrative, the collection's value sharply declined over time, dropping significantly in sales by January 2023, coinciding with Michel's arrest.
