Creator of the fraudulent NFT collection Mutant Ape Planet avoids prison time ❗️
Developer of Mutant Ape Planet Aurélien Michel, who forged the popular NFT collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), has been ordered by the court to return $1.4 million to investors and pay a fine of $15,000. Additionally, U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie sentenced the defendant, a citizen of France, to one month in prison, which he has already served while awaiting sentencing.
The punishment received by Aurélien Michel does not match what prosecutors sought. Citing the scale of the losses suffered by investors, authorities wanted to sentence the developer to 37 months in prison. The defendant's lawyers, on the other hand, argued that their client was innocent because NFT buyers received "their digital artworks".
As a result, the judge concluded that the amount of damage from the fraudulent actions was unclear. According to Brodie, everyone who purchased an NFT received something valuable.
The Mutant Ape Planet collection consisted of 6,797 NFTs released on the Ethereum blockchain. The non-fungible tokens were sold for 567 ethers, but soon after that, the prices of the assets plummeted.
