A 24-year-old Frenchman has been arrested at a New York airport on suspicion of defrauding collectors of NFTs, these digital reproductions that are shaking up the art market, the US Department of Justice has announced. Aurélien Michel sold NFTs by promising to his clients “many benefits and rewards”accuse the justice of the United States.
“Once all NFTs were sold, Mr. Michel allegedly cut off all communication and pulled buyers’ funds from the company’s cryptocurrency wallets, lining his pockets with nearly $3 million of investor-owned money.”, he explains in a press release. The young man was about to travel to the United Arab Emirates, where he resides, when he was intercepted by the authorities at New York’s JFK airport and then brought before a judge.
Aurélien Michel admitted to embezzling funds during an exchange with collectors on social networks transcribed in the Justice Ministry press release, but rejected responsibility for his actions on the NFT buying community, assuring that “it had become too toxic”.
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