PANews reported on December 21 that the U.S. Department of Justice has released an indictment containing six charges against two Southern California men, accusing them of defrauding investors of more than $22 million in cryptocurrency through a series of digital asset projects. According to court documents, from May 2021 to May 2024, Hay and Mayo sponsored multiple NFT and other digital asset projects and conducted promotional campaigns to support these projects. Hay and Mayo are suspected of making or inducing others to make significant false and misleading statements regarding upcoming digital asset projects and providing false and misleading project 'roadmaps' that outlined plans for the launch of NFTs or digital asset projects, which the sponsors never intended to realize.
According to reports, Hay, Mayo, and others have also used these methods in several other digital asset projects, including Vault of Gems, Faceless, Sinful Souls, Clout Coin, Dirty Dogs, Uncovered, MoonPortal, Squiggles, and Roost Coin. It is reported that Hay and Mayo also employed various means to conceal their involvement in fraudulent projects, such as misidentifying other individuals or causing other individuals to be misidentified as project owners.