LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A six-count indictment was unsealed Friday charging Gabriel Hay of Beverly Hills and Gavin Mayo of Thousand Oaks in connection with defrauding investors of more than $22 million in cryptocurrency through a series of schemes Digital asset-based “rug pulls,” a scheme in which investor funds are fraudulently retained after a project is abandoned.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said both men are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of stalking.
According to Friday’s indictment, from May 2021 to May 2024, both men sponsored and promoted multiple non-fungible token (NFT) projects, allegedly making false and misleading statements that they never intended to be true.
“The use of NFTs to commit fraud not only exploits new technologies, but also undermines trust in the broader digital ecosystem,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy. “The alleged actions of Hay and Mayo, who defrauded investors of millions over several years, illustrate the profound harm these schemes cause. These crimes may not involve violence, but they leave countless victims in their wake. HSI remains committed to detecting and educating cryptocurrency fraud schemes to protect investors and ensure that technological advances are used to drive progress, not to deceive.”
A non-fungible token is a digital certificate of ownership for an item or asset that exists on a blockchain, a public and immutable digital ledger or database within a specific…
