The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that two 20-year-olds have been charged with participating in an NFT fraud and money laundering scheme. Defendants Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna allegedly defrauded NFT purchasers advertised as “Frosties.”
According to the DOJ, on or about January 9, the defendants abandoned the Frosties NFT project within hours of the Frosties NFT sold out, shutting down the Frosties website and transferring approximately $1.1 million in cryptocurrency proceeds from the program to in various cryptocurrency wallets. They controlled multiple transactions designed to obfuscate the original source of funds.