<ul><li>The creators of the <keyword id="12936559" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="frosties" source="Orion">Frosties</keyword> project could be looking at over 20 years in prison if they’re found guilty.</li><li>The Frosties project was the first <keyword id="13465543" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nft-rug-pull" source="Orion">NFT rug pull</keyword> of 2022, and the scammers made away with $1.1 million in crypto.</li><li><keyword id="845301" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="rug" source="Orion">Rug</keyword> pulls have accounted for $2.8 billion in stolen crypto funds in 2021.</li></ul>Prosecutors in the United States (US) have charged two 20-year-old creators from California with money laundering and fraud charges relating to the Frosties rug pull earlier this year. A rug pull is where fraudsters hype up a non-fungible token (<keyword id="4668945" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nft" source="Orion">NFT</keyword>) project using social media, only to make away with the money once users put their money into the project.<br /><br /><keyword id="13465544" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ethan-nguyen" source="Orion">Ethan Nguyen</keyword> and <keyword id="13465545" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="andre-llacuna" source="Orion">Andre Llacuna</keyword> are accused of stealing $1.1 million from the Frosties scam. The Frosties scam was the first NFT rug pull of 2022 and amounted to over a million dollars. The scam added to an increasing number of NFT rug pulls plaguing the crypto market over the past year.<br /><br />The scammers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/the-first-nft-scam-this-year-has-cost-investors-1-3-million/articleshow/88852052.cms">sold 8888 NFTs</a> to users at an average floor price of 0.04 Ether, making up a total of $1.3 million at the time. The two alleged scammers were arrested in Los Angeles in California and were each <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/two-defendants-charged-non-fungible-token-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-scheme-0">charged</a> with “one count of committing wire fraud”, which could lead to a jail sentence of 20 years if they’re found guilty. Additionally, they have been slapped with a count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which also carried a 20-year sentence.<br /><div type="ExtQuote" text="NFTs have been around for several years, but recently mainstream interest has skyrocketed. Where there is money to be made, fraudsters will look for ways to steal it. As we allege, Mr. Nguyen and Mr. Llacuna promised investors the benefits of the Frosties NFTs, but when it sold out, they pulled the rug out from under the victims, almost immediately shutting down the website and transferring the money. Our job as prosecutors and law enforcement is to protect investors from swindlers looking for a payday." auname="U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in press statement"></div><br />Thomas Fattorusso, the IRS-CI Special Agent-in-Charge of the case, noted that NFTs “represents a new era for financial investments,” adding that the rules that apply to investments in real estate development would also apply to NFTs. “You can’t solicit funds for a business opportunity, abandon that business and abscond with money investors provided you. Our team here at IRS-CI and our partners at HSI closely track cryptocurrency transactions to uncover alleged schemes like this one,” he said.<br /><br />Nguyen and Llacuna aren’t the first to carry out a rug pull scam. Last year, the Iconics project made away with about $150,000 worth of Solana tokens.<br /><br />In fact, according to blockchain analysis firm <a href="https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2021-crypto-scam-revenues/">Chainalysis</a>, rug pulls accounted for 37% of all crypto scam revenues in 2021, up from a mere 1% in 2020. The company said that scammers made away with $2.8 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2021, thanks to these rug pulls.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/reliance-industries-outshines-benchmark-index-shares-rise-14-in-1-month/articleshow/90438954.cms">Reliance Industries outshines benchmark index, shares rise 14% in 1 month</a><br /></strong><a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/coindcxs-customers-can-now-do-weekly-sips-for-crypto-investments/articleshow/90416668.cms"><strong>CoinDCX’s customers can now have weekly SIPs for crypto investments</strong></a><br />

Frosties creators arrested for $1.1 million NFT rug pull scam

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Disney's next feature animated film, "Strange World," hits theaters on November 23. </li><li>The film is an adventure story starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu. </li></ul><p>Disney's newest <a href="https://www.insider.com/disney-encanto-movie-review-2021-11">animated feature film</a> "Strange World" is an adventure story with a family focus. Directed by Don Hall, and written and co-directed by Qui Nguyen, the film is a Jules Verne-esque journey to — you guessed it — a strange, novel world, colored in hues of pink and populated with bizarre, otherworldly creatures. </p><p>It's also, as Hall and Nguyen said during a press day presentation attended by Insider, a film about fathers and sons. "Strange World" focuses on three generations of the Clade family, from the larger-than-life explorer Jaeger Clade, to his son Searcher, a farmer, to teenager Ethan.</p><p>On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.insider.com/best-underrated-animated-disney-movies-2020-4">Disney</a> released the first trailer for "Strange World." Check it out below.</p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bKh2G73gCCs" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>Here's everything Insider learned about the strange world of "Strange World" during the film's recent press day.</p><h2><strong>'Strange World' is both an adventure and a family story</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="concept art of a vast, lush landscape —&#xa0;a city surrounded first by a series of hexagonal fields, verdant and green, and then by a ring of icy 9mountains" height="3404" width="8000" msid="94500058" hostid="261" sizebytes="1294696"></div><p>"Strange World" takes place in a land known as Avalonia, a city revolutionized by the discovery of a spectacular, technology-enhancing plant called Pando. However, when something starts to go wrong with the plant, farmer Searcher Clade (<a href="https://www.insider.com/jake-gyllenhaal-mysterio-spider-man-far-from-home-cathartic-2022-4">Jake Gyllenhaal</a>), the man who discovered the plant, has to go on a quest in order to restore its power. <strong> </strong></p><p>Searcher's family, including his wife Meridian (<a href="https://www.insider.com/gabrielle-union-the-matrix-audition-janet-jackson-2021-10">Gabrielle Union</a>) and their son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White), ends up getting wrapped up in his foray into the titular Strange World. </p><h2><strong>Hall and Nguyen said they drew inspiration from their own experiences as fathers, as well as other influences, while working on the film</strong></h2><div type="image" title="concept art of three characters in strange world. on the left is Jaeger Clade, a large man with an exaggerated mustache, raising one eyebrow skeptically. in the middle is searcher, a middle aged man with fluffy hair and a beard and goatee, smiling sheepishly. on the right is ethan, a biracial Black teen with curly dark hair coming out of a beanie. he's slightly smiling, earnestly" height="1410" width="3635" msid="94500059" hostid="261" sizebytes="278314"></div><p>Hall and Nguyen are no strangers to Disney animation: Hall directed "Big Hero 6" and "Raya and the Last Dragon," and Nguyen co-wrote the screenplay for "Raya and the Last Dragon." </p><p>"Don and I are both dads and sons and so, you know, it's a great father-son story ultimately," Nguyen said during the press day. "It's a great adventure but it's ultimately a love letter to our dads, to our kids."</p><p>According to Hall, the film's influences range from Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" to the Indiana Jones film "Raiders of the Lost Ark."</p><h2><strong>'Strange World' features a vibrant and unique new world</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="a lush landscape in strange world, with magenta foiliage instead of green grass. tree like structures rise from the ground, almost like fungi or coral, sprouting into different tree-like, shapes. in the foreground, a man lies in the magenta grass, his arms spread wide while a dog stands close to his body. in the corner, there's visible plane wreckage" height="2872" width="3838" msid="94500061" hostid="261" sizebytes="2045764"></div><p>Trailers for the film show this new world, which is colored predominantly in a lush magenta color palette and filled with bizarre creatures. Those critters range from aggressive tentacled predators to flowing streams of blobby, manta-ray like animals flying through the air. </p><p>Production designer Mehrdad Isvandi told members of the press that the film's crew wanted to distinguish the film's Strange World as much from real life as possible, drawing inspiration from everything from coral reefs to sausages. </p><h2><strong>The star-studded voice cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal, Gabrielle Union, and Lucy Liu</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="a young, biracial Black teenager in the animated film &quot;Strange World.&quot; he has hair coming out from underneath a beanie, and wears small, golden hoop earrings. there's an earnest, eager expression on his face" height="782" width="1043" msid="94500062" hostid="261" sizebytes="41322"></div><p>"Strange World" stars Gyllenhaal in his first-ever Disney animated film role as Searcher Clade. Gabrielle Union and Jaboukie Young-White round out the other members of Searcher's immediate family, while Dennis Quaid plays his father. Lucy Liu also stars as Avalonia's leader, Callisto Mal. </p><p>Hall and Nguyen said that the cast's skillful improvisation made it difficult to select which takes to use. </p><p>"When they improv — especially with Jaboukie and Gabrielle, who come from a comedic background — it's just gold, but it also makes our job very difficult," Nguyen said. "'Cause you wanna put every joke, but you can't put every joke."</p><h2><strong>The film also features a character from the Strange World called Splat, who's probably going to be a fan favorite</strong></h2><div type="image" title="assorted sketches of splat, a blob-like blue creature with several &quot;limbs,&quot; standing up, rolling around, scuttling across the ground, and generally moving in different, weird ways" height="876" width="1604" msid="94500064" hostid="261" sizebytes="106838"></div><p>Splat is a blob-like creature that the group encounters once they travel to the Strange World.</p><p>Amorphous and blue, Splat has multiple limbs that allow it to travel in various ways, from spinning around in a cartwheel-like motion, to skittering around on all of its limbs, to walking upright in a humanoid fashion. </p><h2><strong>Henry Jackman composed the film's score</strong></h2><p><strong></strong></p><div type="image" title="five people in the animated film &quot;strange world,&quot; standing at the helm of the ship while a woman pilots it at the wheel" height="792" width="1056" msid="94500065" hostid="261" sizebytes="34480"></div><p>This is the third collaboration between Jackman and Hall, having worked together previously on "Winnie the Pooh" and "Big Hero 6." Hall said that Jackman's "Strange World" score "evokes everything that you want with an action-adventure film."</p>

Everything you need to know about Disney's newest animated movie 'Strange World,' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US prosecutors have charged two men in connection with an alleged $1.1 million Frosties <keyword id="11919795" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft" source="Orion">NFT</keyword> "<keyword id="12896582" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="rug-pull" source="Orion">rug pull</keyword>" scheme.</li><li>The pair, charged with <keyword id="11893299" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="fraud" source="Orion">fraud</keyword> and money laundering, were preparing a second "Embers" scam, the <keyword id="12098051" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="doj" source="Orion">DOJ</keyword> alleged Thursday.</li></ul><p>US prosecutors have charged two men over an alleged $1.1 million NFT "rug pull" scam, saying the "Frosties" collection creators were preparing to carry out a second fraud scheme.</p><p>Ethan Nguyen and Andre Llacuna have been arrested and charged in connection with a million-dollar scheme to defraud purchasers of the <keyword id="11901075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nfts" source="Orion">NFTs</keyword>, the Department of Justice <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/two-defendants-charged-non-fungible-token-nft-fraud-and-money-laundering-scheme-0">said in a statement</a> Thursday.</p><p>They each face one count of wire fraud and another of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison, it said.</p><p>"The trending market and demand for NFT investments has not only drawn the attention of real artists, but scam artists as well," Ricky J. Patel, a Homeland Security agent, was cited as saying in the DOJ statement.</p><p>In January, the developers of Frosties NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/nft-frosties-rug-pull-crypto-discord-opensea-non-fungible-tokens-2022-1">disappeared less than an hour</a> after the cartoon ice-cream collection dropped. All 8,888 tokens were bought by investors, who are estimated to have put up more than $1 million.<br /><br />The incident is widely believed to be a rug pull — a type of scam in which creators quickly cash out after launching what appears to be a legitimate <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> project.</p><p>Nguyen — also known as "Frostie" or "Meltfrost" — and Llacuna promised rewards to Frosties buyers, but when they sold out, they pulled the rug from under the victims, the DOJ said.</p><p>They almost immediately shut down the NFTs' website and transferred $1.1 million in proceeds to multiple crypto wallets they controlled, it alleged.</p><p>The DOJ said investing in NFTs opens the door to substantial risk.</p><p>"These assets may seem like a good deal or a way to become wealthy, but in many cases, as in this situation, only lead to the loss of your money," Daniel B. Brubaker, an inspector in charge for the US Postal Inspection Service, said, according to the DOJ statement.</p><p>Before their arrest, Nguyen and Llacuna are believed to have been preparing a second NFT scam expected to pull in $1.5 million in crypto proceeds, the DOJ said. They were advertising a collection called "Embers", expected to launch Saturday, with similarities to the Frosties set.</p><p>NFTs — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-have-taken-over-heres-why-theyre-important-2021-4?utm_medium=ingest%3Futm_source%3Dmarkets&amp;utm_medium=ingest%3Futm_source%3Dmarkets&amp;utm_medium=ingest%3Futm_source%3Dmarkets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">digital representations</a> of artwork, sports cards, or other collectibles tied to a blockchain — have surged in popularity in the past year as investors from Wall Street and Hollywood get onboard.</p><p>As the NFT market continues to boom, scams are also on the rise. Last year, the estimated value of rug pull scams totaled $2.8 billion, according to <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-crimes-2021-defi-scam-stolen-funds-rug-pull-chainalysis-2022-1?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Chainalysis</a>. </p><p>"NFTs have been around for several years, but recently mainstream interest has skyrocketed. Where there is money to be made, fraudsters will look for ways to steal it," US attorney Williams said.</p><p><strong>Read more: </strong><em><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stocks-to-buy-space-investing-analysis-russia-ukraine-andrew-chanin-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The founder of a space investing fund managing $100 million explains why war in Ukraine is transforming the sector — and shares 9 stocks that could soar as the conflict continues</a></em></p>

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Frosties creators arrested for $1.1 million NFT rug pull scam

BI India Bureau

Everything you need to know about Disney's newest animated movie 'Strange World,' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gabrielle Union

Palmer Haasch

The DOJ has charged 2 men over the $1.1 million Frosties NFT 'rug pull' – and alleged they were preparing to pull off another scam

Hamza Fareed Malik