法国 NFT 诈骗犯因法官质疑买家损失而逃过牢狱之灾

一名法国公民试图利用 2022 年不可替代代币的热潮，出售其“突变猿星球”数字资产，但在法官表示很难确定他们实际损失了多少后，他因欺骗买家而免遭牢狱之灾。

A French national who sought to exploit the frenzy for nonfungible tokens in 2022 by selling his “Mutant Ape Planet” digital assets has avoided prison for defrauding buyers after a judge said it was difficult to determine how much they’d actually lost.

一名法国公民试图利用 2022 年不可替代代币的热潮，出售其“突变猿星球”数字资产，但法官表示很难确定他们实际损失了多少，因此他因欺骗买家而免于入狱。

Aurelien Michel, 26, pleaded guilty in November to wire fraud conspiracy, admitting he falsely promised thousands of NFT buyers “exclusive” benefits to boost the value of his neon-colored digital depictions of cartoon monkeys. Instead, he abandoned the project after he’d raised $2.9 million, prosecutors in the office of US Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn, New York said.

26 岁的 Aurelien Michel 在 11 月承认了电汇欺诈阴谋，并承认他向数千名 NFT 买家虚假承诺“独家”好处，以提高他的霓虹色卡通猴子数字描绘的价值。纽约布鲁克林美国检察官布伦·皮斯 (Breon Peace) 办公室的检察官表示，相反，他在筹集了 290 万美元后放弃了该项目。

US District Judge Margo Brodie on Friday sentenced Michel to the one month he’d already served in a Brooklyn, New York, lockup after his arrest. She also imposed a $15,000 fine and ordered him to forfeit $1.4 million.

美国地区法官玛戈·布罗迪周五判处米歇尔被捕后在纽约布鲁克林看守所服刑一个月。她还对他处以 15,000 美元的罚款，并责令他没收 140 万美元。

Federal prosecutors had sought a 37-month prison term, but Michel’s defense team argued losses tied to the fraud were overstated.

联邦检察官寻求判处 37 个月监禁，但米歇尔的辩护团队认为，与欺诈相关的损失被夸大了。

“The loss amount is unclear,” Brodie said. “There’s no question you and your co-conspirators ultimately gained or at least received $2.9 million from the project,” she told Michel. “But there is also no dispute everyone who purchased an NFT obtained or received something of value. What that value is, is unclear.”

“损失金额尚不清楚，”布罗迪说。 “毫无疑问，你和你的同谋最终从该项目中获得或至少收到了 290 万美元，”她告诉米歇尔。 “但毫无疑问，每个购买 NFT 的人都获得或收到了有价值的东西。这个价值到底是多少，目前还不清楚。”

Michel’s case is one of only three US criminal prosecutions over alleged fraud in NFT marketing and the first to reach sentencing, lawyers for both sides said after the hearing Friday.

双方律师在周五听证会后表示，米歇尔的案件是美国仅有的三起涉嫌 NFT 营销欺诈的刑事诉讼之一，也是第一起宣判的案件。

Before he was sentenced, a tearful Michel apologized to the judge and his victims. “This is my first criminal conviction and I promise you it will be my last,” he said.

在被判刑之前，米歇尔泪流满面地向法官和受害者道歉。 “这是我第一次被定罪，我向你们保证这将是我的最后一次，”他说。

Michel’s lawyers Ira Sorkin and Adam Brody had argued their client should be spared prison, insisting purchasers of “Mutant Ape Planet” NFTs received “digital artwork.”

米歇尔的律师艾拉·索尔金 (Ira Sorkin) 和亚当·布罗迪 (Adam Brody) 辩称，他们的客户应该免于入狱，并坚称“突变猿星球”NFT 的购买者收到了“数字艺术品”。

An NFT confirms unique ownership of a digital asset. They were most popularly used for digital art or collectibles such as video clips, memes or items used in online games. At the height of crypto mania in early 2022, NFT series such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks were fetching millions of dollars, fired up by endorsements from celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg. By June of that year, prices of many NFT collections had collapsed.

NFT 确认了数字资产的唯一所有权。它们最常用于数字艺术或收藏品，例如视频剪辑、模因或在线游戏中使用的物品。在 2022 年初加密货币热潮达到顶峰时，在 Paris Hilton 和 Snoop Dogg 等名人的支持下，Bored Ape Yacht Club 和 CryptoPunks 等 NFT 系列的售价达到了数百万美元。到当年 6 月，许多 NFT 系列的价格已经暴跌。

Prosecutors said in a court filing that “the success of Bored Apes drove demand for other ape-related NFTs. Against this backdrop, the defendant and his co-conspirators began advertising a new NFT project called ‘Mutant Ape Plant’ or MAP.”

检察官在一份法庭文件中表示，“《Bored Apes》的成功推动了对其他与类人猿相关的 NFT 的需求。在此背景下，被告及其同谋开始宣传一个名为“突变猿植物”或 MAP 的新 NFT 项目。

Michel’s crimes were a modern “get-rich-quick scheme” designed to capitalize on the NFT craze, according to federal prosecutors Drew Rolle and Dylan Stern. They said he promised buyers rewards and benefits that never materialized, including a Mutant Ape cryptocurrency token he claimed would increase demand for their newly-acquired assets.

联邦检察官德鲁·罗尔 (Drew Rolle) 和迪伦·斯特恩 (Dylan Stern) 表示，米歇尔的罪行是一项现代“快速致富计划”，旨在利用 NFT 热潮。他们表示，他向买家承诺了从未兑现的奖励和福利，其中包括他声称会增加对他们新获得的资产的需求的 Mutant Ape 加密货币代币。

‘Rug Pull’ Scam

“地毯拉”骗局

This type of maneuver is known as a “rug pull,” when developers raise funds and then disappear without making good on any promises, prosecutors said.

检察官表示，这种做法被称为“地毯拉动”，即开发商筹集资金，然后在没有兑现任何承诺的情况下消失。

After purchasers realized they’d been duped, Michel said in a social media post under a pseudonym that he “never intended” to defraud anyone, but claimed the “toxic” behavior within the NFT community led to the rug pull, according to the government. Prosecutors said he and his co-conspirators intentionally abandoned the project after collecting investor funds.

据政府称，在购买者意识到自己被骗后，米歇尔在社交媒体上以化名发帖表示，他“从未打算”欺骗任何人，但声称 NFT 社区内的“有毒”行为导致了人们的恐慌。 。检察官称，他和他的同谋在筹集投资者资金后故意放弃了该项目。

Ultimately, investors purchased the NFTs for $2,900 each, which led to the transfer of more than $2.9 million of cryptocurrency to two “digital wallets” Michel controlled, according to the government. Michel was arrested when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in January 2023.

据政府称，最终，投资者以每张 2,900 美元的价格购买了 NFT，这导致超过 290 万美元的加密货币转移到米歇尔控制的两个“数字钱包”中。米歇尔于 2023 年 1 月抵达纽约约翰·肯尼迪国际机场时被捕。

Fraud scams tied to crypto are on the rise, in part because the decentralized structure of digital markets makes them appealing for criminals and difficult for authorities to retrieve lost funds, according to the FBI. Investors lost a record $5.6 billion in 2023, up 45% from a year earlier, the agency said in a report.

据联邦调查局称，与加密货币相关的欺诈诈骗正在增加，部分原因是数字市场的去中心化结构对犯罪分子有吸引力，而且当局很难追回丢失的资金。该机构在一份报告中称，2023 年投资者损失创纪录的 56 亿美元，同比增长 45%。

Federal investigators also linked Michel to other well-known NFT scams, including “Fashion Ape” and “Crazy Camels” NFTs, according to Rolle and Stern. For each, once Michel and his co-conspirators sold more than $1 million of tokens, Michel and his co-conspirators abandoned the NFTs, the prosecutors said.

Rolle 和 Stern 表示，联邦调查人员还将 Michel 与其他著名的 NFT 骗局联系起来，包括“时尚猿”和“疯狂骆驼”NFT。检察官表示，一旦米歇尔及其同谋出售了超过 100 万美元的代币，米歇尔及其同谋就放弃了 NFT。

The case is US v. Aurelien, 23-cr-418, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

该案是美国诉 Aurelien，23-cr-418，美国纽约东区地方法院（布鲁克林）。