In the recently released US DOJ report, Ethan Nguyen, who may also be the notorious “Meltfrost” within the NFT community, and Andre Llacuna, or “heyandre”, creators of NFT project Frosties, have been arrested for an alleged “rug pull” on investors and are accused of running not one, but two fraudulent non-fungible token projects. 

 

The men, both 20 years old, allegedly sold NFTs and promised investors multiple benefits, including special access to future metaverse events and early access to limited edition NFT mints.

 

Instead of providing the listed benefits the pair shut down the project website and tried to launder the cryptocurrencies by sending them to various personal wallets.

According to the report the pair,

 

“…abandoned the Frosties NFT project within hours after selling out of Frosties NFTs, deactivated the Frosties website, and transferred approximately $1.1 million in cryptocurrency proceeds from the scheme.”

 

Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Unit’s Thomas Fattorusso, the special agent in charge of the case, stated that while NFTs and many digital assets were new and largely unregulated, they still fall under the umbrella of certain pre-existing laws.

 

Fattorusso commented,

 

“You can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money investors provided you.”

 

The investigators have also alleged that the pair had a third scam project well under way called “Embers” with a launch scheduled for this weekend with expectations of generating over $1.5 million. 

 

The pair have been hit with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, with each facing up to 20 years of incarceration for each charge.

 

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