Another NFT project promoted by Jake Paul has failed to deliver on its promises and rug pulled its community, this time to the tune of $6.3 million.
Animoon billed itself as a play-to-win game with 9,999 program-generated Animoon NFTs and went on to claim it was the “most anticipated NFT project.”
Animoon claimed their Pokémon-derivative NFTs, each costing 0.2 ETH, were produced in partnership with official Pokémon partners TopDeck. The project even went on to assert that they had signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Pokémon themselves.
As is increasingly common for NFT cashouts, Animoon enlisted the services of professional punching bag and serial scammer Jake Paul to handle the project.
“I’m just grateful to be a part of this project,” said Paul in a promotional video message to his followers. “I love the designs inspired by Pokémon – the whole nine yards. Me, personally, I’m gonna try and get a Legendary [Animoon] during the public mint, but y’all better not miss this. Be ready for the mint.”
Having successfully lured investors into their trap with bold claims and celebrity endorsements, Animoon has failed to deliver on its many promises.
Real-world products including trainers and t-shirts were never delivered to investors. Cash rewards for the 15 ‘Legendary’ NFT holders have never been paid out.
crypto sleuth ZachXBT was able to demonstrate, using the analysis tool Breadcrumbs, that the $6.3 million raised by Animoon was transferred to Binance and Kucoin.
Summing up the situation ZachXBT said: “At this point, the Twitter account for Animoon is gone, the website isn’t functional, and general chat has been removed from the Discord.”
Serial crooks unite
The founders of Animoon, named Mounir Mokaddem and Singainy Marc Oceane, seem to have a considerable resume of criminal enterprises to their name. Mokaddem has a website entirely dedicated to listing his alleged criminal exploits. These include taking money for coaching and investment services that were never provided.
Having accumulated a wealth of experience in not fulfilling promises across multiple sectors, the NFT industry was the next logical step for Mokaddem.
Meanwhile, Jake Paul is carving out an unenviable reputation in the crypto sphere as a celebrity accomplice for hire, promoting projects good or bad without prejudice. Paul has promoted several trash projects, including Sacred Devils and STICKDIX, earning him as much as $2.2 million.
Jake’s brother Logan Paul is no stranger to crypto controversy either after the influencer promoted disaster-project CryptoZoo and Dink Doink. Like Jake, Logan continues to milk the crypto-cash cow, promoting further NFT schemes.
The crypto shilling is big business. A recent leak revealed that a single promotional tweet from someone like Lindsay Lohan can cost $20,000. While celebrities are raking in the money from their promotion of crypto projects, ordinary investors are often far less fortunate. Unfortunately, until the dodgy founders and their famous henchmen are held accountable, their behavior simply won’t change.
Sources claim that Animoon founders Mounir Mokaddem and Singainy Marc Oceane currently reside in Dubai. If you have information that might lead to their arrest, you can contact Dubai Police here.
