Frosties NFT
Summary
Frosties was an 8,888-piece Ethereum-based NFT collection themed around animated ice cream characters that launched on January 9, 2022, raising approximately $1.1 million before its creators executed a premeditated rug pull within hours of mint sellout. Ethan Nguyen (pseudonym 'Frostie') and Andre Llacuna (pseudonym 'heyandre'), both then 20 years old, were arrested in Los Angeles in March 2022 and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of New York, marking the first U.S. federal criminal prosecution of an NFT rug pull. Llacuna subsequently pleaded guilty and testified as a government witness in the Roman Storm Tornado Cash trial, while the case established that existing federal wire fraud statutes apply to NFT fraud schemes.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 10 linked investigationsTimeline(7 events)
2022-01-09
Frosties NFT collection mints 8,888 tokens at 0.04 ETH each, selling out in approximately 43 minutes and raising approximately $1.1 million in ETH.
U.S. DOJ SDNY Press Release2022-01-09
Within hours of mint sellout, Nguyen and Llacuna shut down the Frosties website, deactivate the Discord server, and transfer approximately $1.1 million in proceeds to separate wallets in a premeditated rug pull.
U.S. DOJ SDNY Press Release2022-01-09
Approximately $1 million in Ethereum is deposited into Tornado Cash to launder the stolen funds, according to Llacuna's later testimony.
Yahoo Finance / DL News — Tornado Cash Trial Coverage2022-03-24
Ethan Vinh Nguyen and Andre Marcus Quiddaoen Llacuna are arrested in Los Angeles by HSI and IRS-CI. The SDNY unseals charges: one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering against each defendant. The DOJ describes this as the first U.S. federal criminal prosecution of an NFT rug pull.
U.S. DOJ SDNY Press Release2022-03-24
At the time of arrest, a second NFT project called 'Embers' — allegedly another planned rug pull projected to raise $1.5 million — was scheduled to launch on approximately March 26, 2022. The project is halted by the arrests.
Pair Charged for Orchestrating $1.1M NFT Rug Pull Scam, Plotting Another — Vice2023-01-01
Andre Llacuna enters a guilty plea to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges (exact plea date not confirmed in available public sources; reported as having occurred before his 2025 cooperation testimony).
Yahoo Finance / DL News — Tornado Cash Trial Coverage2025-07-01
Andre Llacuna, now 23, testifies as a cooperating government witness in the federal trial of Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, in the SDNY. Llacuna describes using Tornado Cash to launder Frosties proceeds and confirms the mechanics of the rug pull scheme. He testifies under an agreement for possible sentence leniency, with sentencing not yet imposed.
Axie Infinity Exec, NFT Scammer Testify in Roman Storm Trial — DL NewsDecision Log
- hash: 3zGY5Dv9S6khKwXz1qWeHkVFiXVvPKUigsoBcHTyG477
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-5
generated: 5/30/2026, 1:00:28 PM
last updated: 5/30/2026, 1:00:32 PM
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