His family reported to the that Bergman Jerry Nowlin passed away while awaiting sentencing for his involvement in an NFT “rug draw” involving wire fraud and money laundering.  ,
In November 2024, a U. S. judge found the 21-year-old innocent of helping arrange the purchase of a NFT “rug take” fair$ 400, 000. Nowlin, alongside the 25-year-old Devin Alan Rhoden, carried out the price of two Solana NFT series before cancelling a second set.
According to the Department of Justice record, these tasks were successful because of “outright fake statements,” including partnerships with “prominent businesses” and power that would be granted to holder. The Department defined the delayed second collection as a rug pull because the team deleted the team’s Discord and Twitter accounts after accepting payment, not to mention that.
The NFT collections were sold in 2022, starting with” Undead Apes” then” Undead Lady Apes” before the sale of” Undead Tombstone” was cut short. As a result of thousands of patients who had invested in the projects, the entire brought in by the trio was nearly$ 400, 000.
In May of this year, Rhoden admitted guilt to line fraud and money laundering, while Nowlin admitted guilt but was found guilty in November.
Nowlin’s family claims in a profound meeting with the that after the guilty verdict, Nowlin became profoundly sad and withdrawn. His family claims that he was aware of the program, blaming Rhoden as the culprit.
” In his gaze, I don’t think he thought he did something wrong”, Nowlin’s brother, Daniel Barker, said. My nephew was a younger, carefree person who kind of got taken advantage of, according to the legend.
The explanation is that Rhoden was in charge of the project’s promotion side while Nowlin was in charge of the project’s development and was in charge of the behind-the-scenes creation of the tokens. Nowlin’s lawyer, J. Jervis Wise, argued that the 21-year-old had no understanding of the floor take ideas.
” Nowlin didn’t have any knowledge of what Rhoden was doing”, Wise told the . Nowlin and Rhoden had no intention of conspiring to mislead people.
Eventually, however, the Department of Justice found proof that Nowlin had played a strong part in the plan. According to the report, he specifically carried out the money fraud through” chain-hopping” and the use of illegal bitcoin machines that obfuscate the token sender and receiver. The resources were rerouted right to his bank accounts.
He was scheduled to receive up to five years in federal prison for his imprisonment in January. However, Nowlin passed away on December 21 at his Alabama residence. Although his home informed thethat he committed suicide, his cause of death is still unknown.
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