A Ventura County man and a 23-year-old from Beverly Hills have been accused of defrauding investors of over $22 million in a cryptocurrency scheme. Gavin Mayo, 23, and Gabriel Hay, 23, are charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and stalking.
The indictment alleges that the two men carried out “rug pulls” involving digital assets, soliciting investor funds for projects using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) before abandoning them while keeping investor funds. They made false or misleading statements about their plans and provided fake “roadmaps.”
Mayo and Hay allegedly used similar tactics with several other digital asset projects, including Vault of Gems, Faceless, and Clout Coin. They also allegedly hid their involvement by falsely identifying others as project owners.
When a project manager exposed them, Hay and Mayo allegedly carried out a harassment campaign against the victim and his parents. The defendants have been released on $200,000 bonds, with a trial set for February. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison each.
Source: https://eu.vcstar.com/story/news/local/2024/12/21/ventura-county-man-accused-in-22-million-cryptocurrency-fraud-case/77114166007