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The individual responsible for creating counterfeit Mutant Ape NFTs has admitted guilt in a New York federal court, pleading guilty to charges of wire fraud. This French developer faces the potential of a five-year prison sentence for his actions. The fraudulent Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection, a mimicry of Yuga Labs&#39; Mutant Ape Yacht Club project, was at the center of this scheme, which defrauded investors of $3 million.According to the U.S. Attorney&#39;s Office for the Eastern District of New York in a statement on November 14th, Aurelien Michel, the French national, confessed to orchestrating a &#34;rug pull&#34; and acknowledged his involvement in deceiving investors. The scheme involved enticing investors with false promises of rewards and benefits meant to boost demand for the NFT collection.Michel and his accomplices deliberately failed to fulfill these commitments, redirecting millions of dollars for their own gain. Thomas M. Fattorusso, the special agent in charge of IRS criminal investigation in New York, condemned this act of greed, emphasizing that Michel&#39;s guilty plea brings him one step closer to serving time behind bars.Michel was arrested in New York on January 4, 2023, related to the fraudulent scheme. On January 5, the Department of Justice revealed that Michel had openly admitted his wrongdoing to the NFT collection&#39;s community through a social media chat, stating, &#34;we never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.&#34;Upon sentencing, Michel could face a maximum prison term of five years and has also agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution. The Mutant Ape Planet collection, which was subsequently removed from the NFT platform OpenSea, originally consisted of 6,797 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.In February 2022, it recorded over 320 Ether (ETH) in sales volume, but this figure dropped significantly by April 2022. By January 2023, around the time of Michel&#39;s arrest, the collection&#39;s average price and total sales volume had plummeted to nearly zero. That concludes today’s WedNewsDay, we hope you all had fun reading it! Keep an eye out for WedNewsDay the following week and don’t forget to follow us on social media. Thank you! Follow us on:Website | <a href="https://werentnft.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://werentnft.io/</a>Instagram | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/werent_nft/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/werent_nft/</a>Twitter |<a href="https://twitter.com/WebuyOfficial" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> </a><a href="https://twitter.com/WerentOfficial" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://twitter.com/WerentOfficial</a>Medium |<a href="https://medium.com/&#64;webuynft" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> </a><a href="https://medium.com/&#64;werentnft" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://medium.com/&#64;werentnft</a>Facebook | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/werentnft" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/werentnft</a>Youtube | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/&#64;WeRentNFT" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/&#64;WeRentNFT</a>

WEDNEWSDAY! Creator of Mutant Ape ripoff NFTs pleads guilty to $3M fraud scheme!

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