Aurelien Michel
Developer of the 'Mutant Ape Planet' NFT collection
What the public record shows
Aurelien Michel, a French national residing in the United Arab Emirates, developed the “Mutant Ape Planet” NFT collection. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Brooklyn to conspiring to commit wire fraud, agreeing to $1.4 million in forfeiture and facing up to 5 years in prison. This is a criminal conviction — not an allegation.
The scheme — a classic NFT “rug pull”
According to the Department of Justice, Michel and his co-conspirators marketed the NFTs by promising numerous rewards and benefits specifically designed to increase demand for, and the price of, the NFTs — the kind of roadmap promises common across the NFT market. They then intentionally failed to deliver on those promises while diverting millions of dollars in proceeds for personal benefit, continuing to tell buyers the promised benefits were still coming.
This pattern — sell a token on a roadmap of future benefits, collect the money, deliver nothing — is widely known in the crypto community as a “rug pull,” and it has been the basis for numerous federal prosecutions as NFT trading grew.
Why we rate this 1 / 10 — Avoid
A guilty plea for defrauding purchasers with promises the developer never intended to keep — a structure built entirely on projected future value rather than any delivered product.
Red flags this case teaches
- A “roadmap” of future benefits is a promise, not a product. Value based on promised future utility rather than something delivered today is inherently speculative and easy to abandon.
- Anonymous or pseudonymous developers in NFT and crypto projects make it far easier to disappear after collecting funds — look for verified, accountable identities.
- Ongoing reassurances that benefits are “still coming” after missed deadlines are a classic sign a rug pull is already underway.
Bottom line
Convicted by guilty plea. NFT and token value built on a promised future roadmap — not a delivered product — is a bet on the promoter’s honesty, and “rug pulls” show how often that bet loses.
Sources
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