Major NFT fraudsters arrested, indicted

Californian NFT promoters Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo have been apprehended and indicted for their involvement in a major rug pull scam that resulted in the theft of $22 million over three years, making it the biggest NFT fraud case yet, according to Hackread.

Numerous bogus NFT projects, including “Vault of Gems,” “Faceless,” “Dirty Dogs,” “Clout Coin,” and “Sinful Souls,” have been advertised by the pair using ambitious roadmaps to lure millions of investments before abandoning each project between May 2021 and May 2024, noted the U.S. Department of Justice, which also revealed Hay and Mayo to have named other individuals to be behind the scams to conceal their operations.

Both Hay and Mayo could face up to 20 years imprisonment for each of their conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud charges, as well as up to five years jail time for the stalking charge.