The information quickly circulated on specialized information networks: the arrest in the United States, on January 5, 2023, of a 24-year-old Frenchman, suspected of being at the origin of a fraud of 3 M $ in cryptocurrencies. The suspect, Aurélien Michel, was arrested by Homeland Security agents at JFK airport in New York, as he attempted to return to the United Arab Emirates where he lives.
1/ The arrest of Aurelien Michel (@aureiienmichou) shows just how incompetent and amateur some criminals can really be.
Michel is a French national who was residing in the UAE. He founded the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection and defrauded his community out of $2.9 million. pic.twitter.com/Woi8ngFPT7
— Muqsit Haider (@MHofIRP) January 7, 2023
In Brittany, the young man is not entirely unknown. Son of former Guingamp footballer Coco Michel, he has? himself played in several clubs, including Guingamp and Lannion. In 2017, he announced that he was quitting football to devote himself to “ a business career ».
“Carpet pull”
The fraud in which the Breton would be involved is relatively technical: it concerns a collection of NFTs, named Mutant Ape Planet. It would have allowed him to collect $2.9 million to the detriment of his community. One “ Rug pull in cryptocurrency jargon. In short: a theft which consists for its organizer in disappearing with the money of its investors.
Aurélien Michel was presented to a New York judge on January 5, 2023. His arrest had been authorized by the Honorable Judge James R. Cho the day before, on the basis of arguments brought by the Homeland Security special agent, responsible of the investigation. He is accused of having, between December 2021 and December 2022, “intentionally devised a scheme or artifice to defraud individual holders of cryptocurrency, in order to obtain from them money or goods by means of one or of several materially false and fraudulent pretexts, representations and promises”, details the official document.
#Mutant #Ape Planet Founder Arrested In New York For Allegedly Defrauded Of $2.9 Million
Mutant Ape Planet founder, Aurelien Michel was accused in federal court in Brooklyn of defrauding customers of the #NFT project “Mutant Ape Planet” out of $2.9 million. pic.twitter.com/bJ2DuUu9gW
— Jakes Nfts (@jakes_nfts) January 6, 2023
Special Agent Kayla Blades explained to the judge that she specializes in investigating cryptocurrency fraud and in particular the mysterious “non-fungible tokens”. It is a “task force” dedicated to investigations in the dark web which began to take an interest in Mutant Ape Planet in April 2022. The investigation established, assures the special agent to justify the arrest of the Frenchman, that he wired $2.9M into his account, after promising his community that they would receive “subsequent benefits and rewards, as well as exclusive access to other cryptocurrency assets.”
In EAG jersey on his Twitter account
Investigators have accumulated the numerical clues, to identify the suspect and confuse him. The special agent notes that the individual arrested is indeed the same as the one who opened the Twitter account @aureiienmichou in 2014, where the young man poses in profile photo with his En Avant Guingamp jersey. He also writes that “During a social media discussion with current and potential buyers, Michel admitted to embezzling funds, but blamed his actions on the NFT buyer community, stating, “We never intended to embezzle funds, but the community has become way too toxic.”