Two young men were arrested on Tuesday just days after launching a potential fraud scheme – the alleged $1.1 million NFT scam. Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If found guilty, they could face up to 20-years in prison.
The duo is likely linked to the Frosties NFT collection racket. The operators funneled funds from the project after investors injected over $1 million into the cartoon ice cream digital collectibles. The NFT collected was rugged. The project’s developers ran off after siphoning investor funds. Frosties founders left abruptly after making empty promises of premiums, such as staking metaverse and breeding functions. According to Etherscan data, controllers of the developer’s wallet address transferred out most of the initial stolen funds.
A first-time collector, Marcellus King lost about $3,000 worth of Ether from this. Following Nguyen and Llacuna’s arrest, King highlighted that the authorities are watching. He said this will help bring honesty and accountability to the fast-growing NFT market.
Nguyen, as per a criminal complaint, admitted and apologized to a moderator of Frosties’ community Discord server. He is said to have sent the moderator some Ether for the troubles. The accused revealed that the project is coming to an end as they never intended to keep the project running. Nguyen said he doesn’t have a plan for anything in the future.
Word is that there was to be a “follow-up NFT collection” dubbed Embers, which was set for launch on March 26. This project was expected to garner about $1.5 million via sales. Frosties NFT holders hope that this criminal case sets precedence for anyone who comes into the non-fungible token space to scam money out of innocents.
