Frosties NFT Creators Charged: US DoJ Quite Active On Crypto Criminals

• The US DoJ is pretty active lately in the fraud cases related to the crypto space.

• Recently two men in their 20s were charged with an alleged rug pull, as they have looted the community of their 

• NFTs are relatively unique and new, they are still subjected to investment laws that govern things like real estate, highlights Thomas Fattorusso, the special agent in charge 

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has been quite active when it comes to frauds and attacks regarding the crypto industry. Recently it disclosed in a report that it was charging the creators of the NFTs Frosties, who allegedly carried out a rug pull on the NFT community of Frosties. 

The Two Alleged Fraudsters were planning on Another Rug Pull

The DoJ report signifies that the creators namely Ethan Nguyen, who was apparently known as Meltfrost to the NFT community, and Andre Llacuna known as heyandre, are arrested for an alleged rug pull. 

According to the report, both these entities aged 20 years developed this NFT project promising the investors about holders’ various benefits and rewards, additionally special access to future metaverse events and NFT mints. However, these accused did not facilitate any of these benefits. 

What they did was, after selling the NFTs of the project, they took down the project website and attempted to launder the crypto assets by sending them to other personal wallet addresses. The entire fraud totaled around $1.1 million, 

According to Thomas Fattorusso, the special agent in charge of Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) highlighted that while NFTs are relatively unique and new, they are still subjected to investment laws that govern things like real estate. Further adding that anybody can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money that investors provided. 

The report further highlights that the investigation was initiated in the month of January when alleged victims of this case filed complaints. And the IRS-CI carried out investigations of the filed complaints along with the Department of Homeland Security (HSI), and the US Postal Investigation Service (USPIS). And hence, these creators with pseudonymous online identities were found out. 

The investigators also disclosed that apparently, the two trouble makers were also working on another rug pull with a new NFT project called Embers. And this project was planned to launch recently with an expected rug pull amount generation of about $1.5 million. 

Both the entities are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which is leading to 20 years of incarceration for each charge. 

These NFT frauds and attacks are no longer a new thing in the crypto industry. The DoJ is quite active lately with these kinds of cases, even when the fraudsters think that they can’t be tracked using the crypto industry. 

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Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.

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