{"id":18266,"date":"2024-11-01T17:38:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/nft-creators-found-guilty-of-rug-pull-scheme\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T17:38:35","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:38:35","slug":"nft-creators-found-guilty-of-rug-pull-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/nft-creators-found-guilty-of-rug-pull-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"NFT Creators Found Guilty of Rug Pull Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two U.S. citizens have been found guilty of conducting a rug pull following the successful launch of NFT collections, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-mdfl\/pr\/jury-finds-non-fungible-token-developer-guilty-defrauding-investors-and-laundering\">press release<\/a> from the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-one-year-old Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr. and 25-year-old Devin Alan Roden created two NFT collections on the Solana blockchain: UndeadApes and Undead Lady Apes.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXcZE1CTMrx_k0CDQML5--TGtaGL82VVpU-GP043SxOUAdLkAXqseM8__BMMjHr-R0NdFAU3H55sC_hQ6XbpoousV2g5ydIWKfHo9dJBilpGpPEwavMN5YYLuL1OaNCWbMdxGGztqv0kl6rjz9kzGSO1EsWr?key=PC5EhQAdraAGIDm1s8N_4kWq\" alt=\"NFT Creators Found Guilty of Rug Pull Scheme\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">NFT collections UndeadApes and Undead Lady Apes. Source: Department of Justice report.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nowlin served as the developer for both projects, while Roden handled sales through Discord and X. The token prices rose significantly over several weeks. For instance, UndeadApes tokens increased from $5 to $360.<\/p>\n<p>The defendants capitalized on the success of the first two collections and in April 2022 announced the launch of a third NFT series, Undead Tombstone. They made misleading statements, including claims about partnerships with other projects and the amount of reinvested crypto assets.<\/p>\n<p>On April 19, Nowlin and Roden created 632 NFTs, after which they executed a rug pull, stealing investors&#8217; funds and deleting their accounts on Discord and X. They obtained approximately $135,000, transferred the assets to the Ethereum blockchain, then sold and withdrew the funds in U.S. dollars to a bank account.<\/p>\n<p>The total revenue from the three collections amounted to about $400,000.<\/p>\n<p>Roden pleaded guilty on May 24, 2024, with sentencing scheduled for November 20. Nowlin&#8217;s sentencing is set for January 23, 2025, and he faces up to five years in federal prison.<\/p>\n<p>In late October, Massachusetts prosecutors charged Alexey Andryunin, founder and CEO of market maker Gotbit, with fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the crypto market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two U.S. citizens have been found guilty of conducting a rug pull following the successful launch of NFT collections, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. Twenty-one-year-old Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr. and 25-year-old Devin Alan Roden created two NFT collections on the Solana blockchain: UndeadApes and Undead Lady Apes. NFT collections UndeadApes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1213,36,26],"class_list":["post-18266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-nft","tag-regulation","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"62","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}