It’s not a good story. It’s stuck in my mind.
Earlier this month, it was reported that 21-year-old Alabama resident Berman Nowlin — convicted of wire fraud and money laundering charges over an NFT rug pull in 2022 — had died by suicide.
Only three weeks before, a district court in Florida ruled that he was guilty. His sentencing date was set for January. He faced a maximum of five years behind bars.
The project, inspired by Bored Apes and Undead Apes Society included three NFT collection releases over a two-month period.
Nowlin has been described as the programmer who codes the smart contracts.
Devin Rhoden managed the NFTs’ art model engine. Rhoden was a US Air Force senior airman who is 23 years old and worked as an analyst.
The timeline is as shown in the court files:
March 2022 Undead Apes Coins (NFTs) were issued on Solana in quantities of 2,500 for just 0.05 Sol each. UndeadApes was “unique Apes with over 60 hand-drawn traits on the Solana blockchain. Ready to take on the Metaverse.”
Then, in the month of March 2022 Undead Lady Apes, worth approximately $53,400 each, were issued on Solana. These had supposed DeFi functions — stakers would earn up to 6x, 75% of royalties would go back into the liquidity pool, with the rest going toward paying the team.
April 2022 The initial Undead Apes collection floor prices were 3.6 SOL and 6 SOL, respectively. The SOL equivalents are 72x and eight times their original mint price.
In April 2022, expect: Undead Tombstones has announced the release of a third edition mint. The project was a collaborative effort with Stoned Ape Crew.
There was a claim that tombstones could offer additional benefits to Undead Apes players, allowing them to generate a greater return on their investments.
The two hours after: It is important to note that the word “you” means “you”. Stoned Ape Crew disavows any association or affiliation with Undead Apes Society. The Undead Apes team abandons the mint shortly after — taking the proceeds — and floor prices for all related NFTs immediately crash 85%.
The Undead Apes Society Chat was then accessed by Discord users. “Yall are dumb as fuck.”
Earnings from rug pulls totaling $161 548 were traced by authorities. They had been converted into US Dollars, and then split roughly equally between Nowlin and Rhoden.
The evidence presented by prosecutors suggests that there was a deliberate plan throughout the whole time. Another Air Force member, who was a victim of this scheme, initially alerted the Feds.
I am haunted by two thoughts. First, the amount of money that was extracted by the rug pulling is relatively small.
It’s possible that I have become desensitized to much bigger fraud cases, but even so, it was enough to get Rhoden five years of probation for pleading guilt. His testimony, according to reports, led to Nowlin being convicted.
Nowlin has also been diagnosed with Autism. The family said he was above average in intelligence. However, he exhibited the emotional maturity and maturity of someone who is 14 years old. According to reports, he taught himself how to code. He spent the majority of his online time playing video games or chatting on Discords.
There is so much about crypto that is larger than life — often larger than any life we could ever imagine. The Undead Apes carpet pull was not any of those things.
People lost money, as expected, very fast. What if the team had actually kept their word? Most likely they would still have lost money.
Most of the time, reading about rug-pulling brings a certain amount of schadenfreude. Crime stories are often enlivened by the absurdity of how criminals can be caught.
Fraud should not be tolerated and fraudsters must be brought to justice. Undead Apes was a case in point. It is a terrible reminder of the fact that, while money and assets may be silly and digital in nature, stories can still be painfully true.
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