Two California men have been charged with masterminding a series of elaborate NFT (non-fungible token) scams that swindled over $22 million from unsuspecting buyers, according to a recent announcement by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). This marks the largest NFT fraud case prosecuted by the department to date.
Gabriel Hay of Beverly Hills and Gavin Mayo of Thousand Oaks were both taken into custody on Thursday in Los Angeles. They now face multiple charges, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of stalking. As per the indictment, between May 2021 and May 2024, Hay (also known as “Mr.
Handz,” “Diamondhandz,” “Centurion,” and “Vaultkeeper”) and Mayo (also known as “Gavinm”) used fake identities and deceptive tactics to promote various NFT projects built on both the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. These included Vault of Gems, Faceless, Sinful Souls, Clout Coin, Dirty Dogs, Uncovered, MoonPortal, Squiggles, and Roost Coin.
To lure investors into buying their tokens, the duo made false claims about the potential value of their projects and even created fake social media profiles to add credibility to their ventures. However, once they had amassed significant sums of money through initial coin offerings (ICOs), they suddenly abandoned the projects, leaving investors holding worthless tokens.
What’s more alarming is that the indictment also alleges that Hay and Mayo engaged in harassment against a project manager from the Faceless NFT project who had exposed their fraudulent activities. This includes sending threatening messages and attempting to locate the individual’s personal information without consent.
“This indictment should serve as a warning to anyone considering participating in such schemes: law enforcement agencies worldwide are working together to identify and prosecute these criminals,” stated U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “We urge anyone who believes they may have been victimized by this or any other cryptocurrency scam to report it immediately.”
The investigation into this case was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that focuses on combating financial crimes such as those related to cryptocurrencies.
They were assisted by the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), a specialized unit within the DOJ dedicated to tackling cryptocurrency-related offenses.
Source
As per reported by decrypt.co
