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

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.

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/

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The second "Visual Toy" about cryptocurrency and its universe that continues the exclusive collection on this theme. After the first Visual Toy, dedicated to the cryptocurrency itself, this visual toy is the other side of the coin. It represents, as its title tells us, the investor's dream, the current person and his financial hopes. A surreal fantasy of the dreams and longings of every investor, in this case the crypto investor. In this magical, happy and colorful dream, aspirations of all kinds intermingle, both the desire for great benefits, represented in a long animation that shows us a production cycle or series production that ranges from the gastronomic recipe of a two-ingredient cake. Bitcoin slice and Ethereum smoothie, passing through magic, represented in a fairy that transforms the cake into real money, which is sucked into a giant capsule to accumulate it and multiply it. The rest is full of investor aspirations, which appear in their dreams in the form of profits or screens that announce that values are rising steadily, as well as physical possessions, such as the sailboat, the helicopter, homes and other objects or possibilities. A dream full of happiness, fun and hope.
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