Two California men have been charged for committing a cryptocurrency scam worth $22 million. According to authorities, the suspects, 23-year-old Gabriel Hay of Beverly Hills and Gavin Mayo of Thousands Pam’s were accused of scamming unsuspecting investors in a crypto scheme.
In a statement by prosecutors, the two men were charged with taking funds for investment in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and disappearing. The prosecutors also mentioned that the duo floated several crypto schemes that met the same end as their NFT scheme.
According to a statement from the United States Attorney’s office, the two men, with help from another person, carried out this scam from May 2021 to May 2024. The statement revealed that they carried out an act known as rug pull, where developers or people in charge of a project take out investor funds and abandon the project.
Two California men charged for multiple crypto scam schemes
In the indictment, the prosecutors noted that the suspects, Hay and Mayo, lied to investors about the state of one of their projects, Vault of Games. The duo claimed that the NFT project will be the first to be pegged to a hard asset. They also lied to investors that the Vault of Games project would work with jewelers worldwide, a claim that was found to be false. In addition, the men also claimed they had started making their exchange, where jewelers would come and register to provide service.
Things started to go south when the Vault of Games’ handle on X posted in November 2021, asking what was happening. After a while, the followers gathered around the project’s comment section, accusing them of deleting the investor’s page on their Discord channel. Most users were frustrated, lashing out at the project, with one thing evident; they had been scammed by its founders. The comments later accused the developers of stealing the community funds, with most of them disappointed that they failed to deliver on their promise.
Prosecutors list out the allegations against the men
According to the prosecutors, the California men acted brazenly and without remorse, transferring the stolen funds into their wallets. They also mentioned that the Vault of Games was not the duo’s first rodeo, tying them to the rug pulls of projects like Faceless, Sinful Souls, Dirty Dogs, Uncovered, Roost Coin, Clout Coin, MoonPortal, among others.
In her statement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri condemned the act, citing the dangers of emerging technologies. “Fraudsters take advantage of new technologies and financial products to steal investors’ hard-earned money,” Argentieri said.
Argentieri also assured the public that the department will continue a clampdown on individuals and entities carrying out these acts. “The department is committed to protecting investors and will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to root out fraud involving cryptocurrency and other digital assets and bring offenders to justice,” she added.
In addition to their charges, prosecutors claimed that Hay and Mayo stalked one of their project managers, harassing him for outing one of their projects as a scam. The prosecutors said when the project manager, who was first blamed for the rug pull, pointed to the Californian men as the creators of the project, they sent several threatening messages to him in hopes of getting him to recant his story. They also posed as fake lawyers to make him back down from talking to the cops.
In one of the emails, Hay and Mayo threatened to falsely accuse the project manager’s parents of carrying out improper sexual acts. The indictment mentioned that the last threat came in September 2023, with the duo reminding the project manager that they were still watching him while planning ‘to destroy’ him. The California men are charged with a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of stalking, and two counts of wire fraud. If the prosecutors get a favorable ruling, they could spend up to 25 years in jail.
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