DOJ Charges Moroccans With Stealing $450,000 in OpenSea Scam

The US Attorney’s Office announced Monday that US authorities have indicted an individual accused of stealing $450,000 worth of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens.

The indictment issued by US Attorneys for the Southern District of New York alleges that Morocco’s Soufiane Oulahyane operated a website similar to the popular NFT marketplace OpenSea to engage in a cybercrime known as “spoofing”. , providing unauthorized access to digital assets and NFTs.”

Oulahyane faces multiple counts of wire fraud, use of an unauthorized access device and aggravated identity theft. The alleged crimes occurred in September 2021.

“Oulahyane complied [an] In a press release, US Attorney Damian Williams stated that the crypto space is a “new and rapidly evolving space.”

Oulahyane used the fake OpenSea website to lure Manhattan NFT owners to sign up register on it and then give him their seed phrase, which Oulahyane used to sell NFTs and cryptocurrencies that he had gained control of. One of the NFTs was from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which was valued at approximately $92,000 at the time of publication.

Oulahyane was taken into custody by the Moroccan authorities. If found guilty, he could face up to 47 years in prison.