Mutant Ape Planet creator Aurelien Michel pleaded guilty to defrauding investors and avoided a prison sentence.
The developer of the Mutant Ape Planet, a ripoff of the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, was ordered by a court to forfeit $1.4 million and pay a $15,000 fine.
On Nov. 1, United States District Judge Margo Brodie reportedly sentenced French national Aurelien Michel to a one-month lockup that he had already served in a facility in New York. The judge also imposed a $15,000 fine on Michel and ordered the NFT developer to forfeit $1.4 million.
While federal prosecutors wanted a 37-month prison term for Michel, the defense argued that losses connected to the fraud were overstated. Michel’s lawyers, Ira Sorkin and Adam Brody argued that the Mutant Ape Planet developer should be spared from prison as purchasers of the NFT received “digital artwork.”
