Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment against two California residents, Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo, accusing them of being involved in a massive $22 million crypto fraud scheme. This revelation comes at a time when the FBI has reported that Americans lost over $5.6 billion to crypto fraud in 2023, marking a significant 45% increase compared to the previous year.
As per information from ABC News, citing the prosecutors, Hay, based in Beverly Hills, and Mayo, from Thousand Oaks, are alleged to have executed multiple “rugpull” schemes between May 2021 and May 2024. They reportedly created NFT projects to draw in investors and then abandoned those projects while pocketing the funds.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has slapped both 23-year-old individuals with several charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of stalking. Each wire fraud count could potentially lead to a 20-year prison sentence, and the stalking charge might add an extra five years to their prison time if convicted.
The pair is said to have promoted various fraudulent projects, such as the “Vault of Gems NFT,” amassing millions from investors before deserting the undertakings. The indictment further reveals their attempts to conceal their involvement by wrongly attributing project ownership to other people. Moreover, prosecutors allege that the defendants even launched a harassment campaign targeting the manager of the projects as well as their family.
This case is part of a larger trend in cryptocurrency crime. The FBI has noted that although crypto-related crimes make up just 10% of financial fraud complaints, they account for nearly half of all the financial losses that Americans endured due to scams in 2023. Among these, investment schemes similar to the ones allegedly conducted by Hay and Mayo were responsible for the highest losses, totaling $4 billion across the nation.
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