A senior airman in the US Air Force and cyber analyst, Devin Alan Rhoden, is facing accusations from a Florida district court for his involvement in a non-fungible token (NFT) scam referred to as a “rug pull” — a common crypto scam, where developers attract investors to what seems like a promising project and then vanish with the funds, leaving investors with worthless assets.
The alleged scam involves Rhoden’s project, “UndeadApes NFTs,” created as a play on the popular Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) artworks.
In March 2022, 2,500 UndeadApes NFTs were minted on the Solana blockchain at 0.05 SOL each (approximately $5). Another minting phase occurred the same month, with 750 NFTs minted at 0.75 SOL each (around $70).
The project announced a third drop in April 2022, named “Undead Tombstones,” which promised staking and royalty options. During the mint, a collaboration with Stoned Ape Crew, a very successful NFT project, was announced on X (formerly Twitter), leading to an increase in the value of Undead Tombstones NFTs. However, Stoned Ape Crew later denied the collaboration, and the developers executed the rug pull by abandoning the mint.
Following the rug pull, the prices of Undead Apes and Undead Lady Apes NFTs dropped from 2.38 SOL and 3.99 SOL to 0.5 SOL and 0.6 SOL, respectively.
In April 2022, Rhoden allegedly received over 21 ETH (the fraud proceeds) into his Coinbase account. He is now facing charges of Money Laundering Conspiracy and False Statement to a Federal Agency.
This incident is not an isolated case, as the NFT space has seen other legal disputes. In April 2023, Yuga Labs won a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen for their RR/BAYC NFT collection. In November 2023, the creator of Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection, Aurelien Michel, pleaded guilty to defrauding investors of $3 million in a rug-pull scam, facing up to 5 years in prison and $1.4 million forfeiture.
The surge in criminal activities has spurred a call for legal acknowledgment. In light of this, for instance, in November 2023, China began recognizing NFT theft as a crime.
