Creator of Mutant Ape ripoff NFTs pleads guilty to $3M fraud scheme By Cointelegraph

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The creator of the Mutant Ape Planet nonfungible token (NFT) collection — a knock-off of Yuga Labs’ Mutant Ape Yacht Club project — has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a New York federal court.

In a Nov. 14 statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said French national Aurelien Michel pleaded guilty to executing a “rug pull” and admitted to defrauding investors out of $3 million in connection with the fraudulent Mutant Ape Planet NFTs.

Sales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection between Jan. 2022 to Jan. 2023. Source: OpenSea