两名加州男子被控诈骗投资者超过 2200 万美元的加密货币“地毯”

周五，洛杉矶公布了一项包含六项罪名的起诉书，指控两名加州男子通过一系列数字资产项目“rug pulls”诈骗投资者超过 2200 万美元的加密货币。代币（NFT）或其他数字资产项目向投资者筹集项目资金，然后突然放弃该项目，并欺诈性地保留投资者资金。

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.

两名加州男子被指控通过一系列数字资产项目“rug pulls”诈骗投资者超过 2200 万美元的加密货币，这是一种欺诈计划，其中非同质代币 (NFT) 或其他数字资产项目的创建者招揽投资者投资者向该项目提供资金，然后突然放弃该项目并诈骗投资者的资金。

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

周四，这两名男子在洛杉矶被国土安全调查局 (HSI) 逮捕。

The charges

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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.

根据法庭文件，从 2021 年 5 月到 2024 年 5 月，比佛利山庄 23 岁的加布里埃尔·海伊 (Gabriel Hay) 和千橡市 23 岁的加文·梅奥 (Gavin Mayo) 赞助了多个 NFT 和其他数字资产项目，并开展了支持这些项目的推广活动。

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 涉嫌制作或导致他人就正在启动的数字资产项目做出重大虚假和误导性陈述，并提供虚假和误导性的项目“路线图”，详细说明 NFT 或其他数字资产项目启动后的计划，而发起人从未打算这样做实现。例如，起诉书称，在推广 Vault of Gems NFT 项目时，Hay 和 Mayo 错误地声称该项目将是“第一个与硬资产挂钩的 NFT 项目”。然而，海伊和梅奥据称在从投资者那里筹集了数百万美元的资金后放弃了这些项目，而不是像他们所声称的那样追求宝石库项目或其他项目。

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 和其他人据称在各种数字资产项目中使用了这些策略，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.

据称，海伊和梅奥还使用各种手段，通过错误地识别其他个人或导致其他人被错误地识别为项目所有者来隐瞒他们参与欺诈项目的情况。当 Faceless NFT 项目的一名项目经理揭露 Hay 和 Mayo 是该项目的幕后黑手时，Hay 和 Mayo 据称对项目经理发起了骚扰活动，为此目的向项目经理及其父母发送或导致发送消息恐吓他和他的家人，给他们造成巨大的精神痛苦。

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.

海伊和梅奥分别被指控一项串谋实施电信诈骗罪、两项电信诈骗罪和一项跟踪诈骗罪。如果罪名成立，他们每项共谋和电信欺诈罪名将面临最高 20 年监禁，而跟踪罪名将面临最高 5 年监禁。

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.”

“三年来，Hay 和 Mayo 显然对投资者撒了谎，目的是骗取他们数百万美元，”HSI 执行副董事 Katrina W. Berger 表示。 “此类技术欺诈计划每年使投资者损失数百万美元。仅仅因为此类犯罪不是暴力行为，并不意味着它们没有受害者。 HSI 将继续调查、扰乱和拆除此类加密货币欺诈网络。”

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.

此案由加州中区美国助理检察官麦克斯韦·科尔（Maxwell Coll）和两名审判律师起诉，他们是国家加密货币执法小组（NCET）的成员，该小组的成立是为了打击日益增长的非法使用加密货币和数字资产的行为。

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.

建议认为是任何这些诈骗或涉及两名被告的其他诈骗的受害者的个人与 HSI 联系。