兩名加州男子被控詐騙投資者超過 2200 萬美元的加密貨幣“地毯”

週五，洛杉磯公佈了一項包含六項罪名的起訴書，指控兩名加州男子透過一系列數位資產項目「rug pulls」詐騙投資者超過 2,200 萬美元的加密貨幣。資產項目向投資者籌集項目資金，然後突然放棄該項目，並欺詐性地保留投資者資金。

Two California men have been charged with defrauding investors of more than $22 million in cryptocurrency through a series of digital asset project “rug pulls,” a type of fraud scheme in which the creator of a nonfungible token (NFT) or other digital asset project solicits funds from investors for the project and then abruptly abandons the project and fraudulently retains investors’ funds.

兩名加州男子被指控透過一系列數位資產項目「rug pulls」詐騙投資者超過2,200 萬美元的加密貨幣，這是一種欺詐計劃，其中非同質代幣(NFT) 或其他數位資產項目的創建者招攬投資者投資者向該項目提供資金，然後突然放棄該項目並詐騙投資者的資金。

Both men were arrested on Thursday by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Los Angeles.

週四，這兩名男子在洛杉磯被國土安全調查局 (HSI) 逮捕。

The charges

收費

According to court documents, from May 2021 to May 2024, Gabriel Hay, 23, of Beverly Hills, and Gavin Mayo, 23, of Thousand Oaks, sponsored several NFT and other digital asset projects and undertook promotional activities in support of those projects.

根據法庭文件，從2021 年5 月到2024 年5 月，比佛利山莊23 歲的加布里埃爾·海伊(Gabriel Hay) 和千橡市23 歲的加文·梅奧(Gavin Mayo) 贊助了多個NFT 和其他數位資產項目，並開展了支持這些項目的推廣活動。

Hay and Mayo allegedly made or caused others to make materially false and misleading statements regarding the digital asset projects being launched and provided false and misleading project “roadmaps” detailing plans for the NFTs or other digital asset projects after their launch that the sponsors never intended to fulfill. For example, the indictment alleges that in promoting the Vault of Gems NFT project, Hay and Mayo falsely claimed that the project would be the “first NFT project to be pegged to a hard asset.” However, instead of pursuing the Vault of Gems project or others as they had represented they would, Hay and Mayo allegedly abandoned the projects after collecting millions in funds from investors.

Hay 和Mayo 涉嫌製作或導致他人就正在啟動的數位資產項目做出重大虛假和誤導性陳述，並提供虛假和誤導性的項目“路線圖”，詳細說明NFT 或其他數位資產項目啟動後的計劃，而發起人從未打算這樣做實現。例如，起訴書稱，在推廣 Vault of Gems NFT 計畫時，Hay 和 Mayo 錯誤地聲稱該計畫將是「第一個與硬資產掛鉤的 NFT 計畫」。然而，海伊和梅奧據稱在從投資者那裡籌集了數百萬美元的資金後放棄了這些項目，而不是像他們所聲稱的那樣追求寶石庫項目或其他項目。

Hay, Mayo, and others allegedly used these tactics with a variety of digital asset projects, including Vault of Gems, Faceless, Sinful Souls, Clout Coin, Dirty Dogs, Uncovered, MoonPortal, Squiggles, and Roost Coin.

Hay、Mayo 和其他人據稱在各種數位資產項目中使用了這些策略，包括 Vault of Gems、Faceless、Sinful Souls、Clout Coin、Dirty Dogs、Uncovered、MoonPortal、Squiggles 和 Roost Coin。

Hay and Mayo also allegedly used a variety of means to conceal their involvement in the fraudulent projects by falsely identifying other individuals or causing other individuals to be falsely identified as owners of the projects. When one project manager on the Faceless NFT project exposed Hay and Mayo as being behind that project, Hay and Mayo allegedly embarked on a harassment campaign against the project manager, sending or causing the sending of messages to the project manager and his parents for the purpose of intimidating him and his family and causing them great emotional distress.

據稱，海伊和梅奧還使用各種手段，透過錯誤地識別其他個人或導致其他人被錯誤地識別為專案所有者來隱瞞他們參與詐欺專案的情況。當 Faceless NFT 專案的一名專案經理揭露 Hay 和 Mayo 是該專案的幕後黑手時，Hay 和 Mayo 據稱對專案經理發起了騷擾活動，為此目的向專案經理及其父母發送或導致發送訊息恐嚇他和他的家人，造成他們巨大的精神痛苦。

Hay and Mayo are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of stalking. If convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each of the conspiracy and wire fraud counts and a maximum penalty of five years on the stalking count.

海伊和梅奧分別被指控一項共謀實施電信詐欺罪、兩項電信詐欺罪和一項追蹤詐欺罪。如果罪名成立，他們每項共謀和電信詐欺罪名將面臨最高 20 年監禁，而跟蹤罪名將面臨最高 5 年監禁。

Victims have been asked to come forward

受害者已被要求挺身而出

“For three years, Hay and Mayo apparently lied to their investors in order to defraud them out of millions of dollars,” said HSI Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger. “Such technological fraud schemes cost investors millions of dollars every year. Just because such crimes aren’t violent does not mean they are victimless. HSI will continue to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle such cryptocurrency fraud networks.”

「三年來，Hay 和 Mayo 顯然對投資者撒了謊，目的是騙取他們數百萬美元，」HSI 執行副董事 Katrina W. Berger 表示。 「此類技術詐欺計畫每年使投資者損失數百萬美元。僅僅因為此類犯罪不是暴力行為，並不意味著它們沒有受害者。 HSI 將繼續調查、擾亂和拆除此類加密貨幣詐欺網路。

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maxwell Coll for the Central District of California and two trial attorneys who are members of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which was established to combat the growing illicit use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

此案由加州中區美國助理檢察官麥克斯韋·科爾（Maxwell Coll）和兩名審判律師起訴，他們是國家加密貨幣執法小組（NCET）的成員，該小組的成立是為了打擊日益增長的非法使用加密貨幣和數位資產的行為。

Individuals who believe to be victims of any of those scams or other scams involving the two defendants are advised to get in touch with the HSI.

建議認為是任何這些詐騙或涉及兩名被告的其他詐騙的受害者的個人與 HSI 聯繫。