NFT Scheme Leads To Fraud Charge Against FL Man: U.S. DOJ

TAMPA, FL — Two men — one from Florida, the other from Alabama — face charges related to a non-fungible token (NFT) scheme, authorities said.

Devin Alan Rhoden, 24, of Pinellas Park (also known as “Denny” and Deviinz”) and Berman Jerry Nowlin, Jr., 20, of Huntsville (also known as “Repulse” and “Zayous”) were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

If convicted, they each face up to five years in federal prison.

In March 2022, Rhoden and Nowlin minted two NFT collections on the Solana blockchain named “UndeadApes” and “Undead Lady Apes.”

The average sale price of both NFT collections increased significantly in the following weeks, the DOJ said.

They announced their plan to mint a third NFT collection called “Undead Tombstone” in April of that year.

Rhoden and Nowlin “made a number of material misrepresentations to attract victim-investors” in that announcement and advertisements, the DOJ said.

They minted 632 “Undead Tombstone” NFTs on April 19, 2022, resulting in about $135,000 worth of cryptocurrency being sent to wallets under their control. The duo then abandoned the mint before satisfying promises made to their victim-investors, which is known as a “rug pull,” the DOJ said.

Rhoden and Nowlin transferred the fraud’s proceeds from the Solana blockchain to the Ethereum blockchain, known as “chain-hopping,” to make it more difficult to trace their funds.

They used their Ethereum cryptocurrency to buy U.S. dollars, which they transferred into their bank accounts. In a matter of weeks, Rhoden and Nowlin received more than $300,000 in cryptocurrency from hundreds of victims all over the world for the NFT collections, the DOJ said.