25/03/2022 Two 20-year-olds charged in alleged $1.1M NFT scam

They took the virtual money and ran.

Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District Thursday charged two 20-year-olds in connection with an alleged NFT scam.

Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for allegedly selling bogus NFTs to investors before abandoning the project, shutting down their website, and absconding with $1.1 million in digital funds.

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NFTs, or Non-Fungible Tokens, are digital assets supposedly made unique and therefore scarce through block-chain technology. In recent years NFTs have fueled aboom in sales of digital art.

“The trending market and demand for NFT investments has not only drawn the attention of real artists, but scam artists as well,” Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent In Charge Ricky Patel said in a statement.“The arrested thieves allegedly hid behind online identities where they promised investors rewards, giveaways, and exclusive opportunities before implementing their ‘rug pull’ scheme– leaving investors with empty pockets and no legitimate investment.”

Prosecutors say the pair had pulled up stakes on their so-called “Frosties” series of NFTs — deleting the website and transferring the $1.1 million across several virtual wallets — within hours of selling out the digital tokens.

"Embers" website Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering for allegedly selling bogus NFTs to investors before abandoning the project.U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Nguyen and Llacuna were planning to repeat the digital fly-by-night act with a March 26 NFT drop called “Embers”, prosecutors said.

The pair face up to 20 years in prison in convicted.

Arts

https://nypost.com/2022/03/24/two-20-year-olds-charged-in-alleged-1-1m-nft-scam/

Interesting NFTs
Cypher::Prophet
Cypher::Prophet is an artwork dedicated to the punk origins of blockchain designed and realized by hackatao and hex6c. In the transposition into images we started from the iconographic canons of the hacker (hoodie, laptop, cryptographic elements) and associated them with the figure of the prophet, thus highlighting the predictive nature of the works of Eric Hughes (Cypherpunk Manifesto, 1988) and Timothy C. May (Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, 1993) as well as of the blockchain inventors Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta (How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document, The Journal of Cryptography, 1991). Read the full story on https://medium.com/@hex6c/cypher-prophet-the-punk-origins-of-blockchain-1e8fce311e72
Fidenza #772
Fidenza is by far my most versatile algorithm to date. Although the program stays focused on structured curves and blocks, the varieties of scale, organization, texture, and color usage it can employ create a wide array of generative possibilities. Additional project feature(s) => Scale:Jumbo, Turbulence:Low, Colors:Cool, Have Margin:Yes, Spiral:Yes, Soft Shapes:No, Super Blocks:No, Collision Check:No Overlap, Outlined:No, Shape Angles:Curved, Density:High
The Moth Catcher
In this psychologically bed-headed portrait, a creature sets in a trance; his eyes devolved and vestigal, his third eye open but hardened and in a form resembling a Sharingan. The imagery therefore expresses an awareness existing in corporeal introspection. The creature’s mind sprouts, on the left side, an emerging face, grinning. To the right side of the head, red tentacles and fingers intertwine–a collaboration of invertebrate and vertebrate consciousness cooperatively handling paint brushes of the sort used to build an oil painting. The neck and throat bristle with random thorns, as from a rose or the upper portions of a beak sprouting from its flesh. The neck itself disassociates into layers of membranous material, terminating upon an abstracted base of convoluted forms composing its body. The nose is virtually non existent, more a sinus reiterative of the shape of the third eye. Set against the exposed teeth peering out of thick, meaty cheeks, a skeleton-like impression results. That impression sets behind a visceral set of lips and tongue, which is the creature’s prime seat of awareness. Sensual, organic, the tongue organ hangs, meaty, and with consciousness of a sea cucumber. It illuminates at the tip, drawing the attraction of a nearby moth–with mystery of purpose.
blaze
*hissing noises*! I'm blaze. I believe that one day cats will rule this planet. I am 37% elf, 95% Dispensary Clerk, and otherwise bad at math. I like your face.
Lovers and unravelled obi, from the series Picture-book Models of Couples
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Lovers and unravelled obi, from the series Picture-book Models of Couples 1812 - Japan