According to ChainCatcher, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday that three British nationals, Mohamed-Amin Atcha, Mohamed Rilaz Waleedh and Daood Hassan, were charged with wire fraud and money laundering for planning a $3 million scam related to the "Evolution Ape" NFT series.
The charges stem from a 2021 scheme that allowed NFT collectors to buy “10,000 unique” Ethereum-based NFTs called “Evolve Ape” that could then be used in an online battle game. The defendants received a total of 798 ETH, worth about $2.7 million at the time.
"As alleged, the defendants inflated the price of digital artwork by falsely promising to develop a video game," Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. "They allegedly took investors' funds, never developed the game, and kept the proceeds for themselves."