Mutant Ape NFT ripoff creator to forfeit $1.4M, avoids prison

The developer of the Mutant Ape Planet, a ripoff of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, was ordered by a court to forfeit $1.4 million and pay a $15,000 fine. 

On Nov. 1, United States District Judge Margo Brodie reportedly sentenced French national Aurelien Michel to a one-month lockup that he had already served in a facility in New York. The judge also imposed a $15,000 fine on Michel and ordered the NFT developer to forfeit $1.4 million. 

While federal prosecutors wanted a 37-month prison term for Michel, the defense argued that losses connected to the fraud were overstated. Michel’s lawyers, Ira Sorkin and Adam Brody argued that the Mutant Ape Planet developer should be spared from prison as purchasers of the NFT received “digital artwork.” 

Because of this, Brodie concluded that the loss amount is unclear. The judge said that while the developer and his co-conspirators received $2.9 million from the project, everyone who purchased an NFT received something of value. “What that value is, is unclear,” Brodie added.

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Michel admitted to performing a “rug pull” on social media

On Jan. 6, 2023, Michel was arrested in New York for the alleged $2.9 million fraud. In a Department of Justice press release, Homeland Security agent Ivan Arvelosaid said that Michel perpetrated a rug pull scheme and stole almost $3 million from investors. 

The release also said in January that Michel admitted via social media chat that he had conducted a rug pull by saying, “We never intended to rug but the community went way too toxic.”

Sales of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection. Source: OpenSea

The collection consisted of 6,797 NFTs on Ethereum. It had 567 Ether (ETH) in sales, but the average price plummeted since its launch in January 2022. 

On Nov. 15, 2023, Michel pleaded guilty to executing a rug pull and admitting to defrauding investors. At the time, prosecutors said Michel and his associates intentionally failed to deliver their promises to the NFT collection’s community members. 

The prosecutors said that while Michel purported to sell NFTs backed with rewards and benefits, he turned the dream into a “nightmare of deception and losses.”

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