Former D1 Swimming Commit Gavin Mayo Indicted in Massive NFT Fraud Scheme

Former UNC swimming commit Gavin Mayo has been indicted on charges that he and another man, Gabriel Hay, defrauded investors of more than $22 million in cryptocurrency in what is referred to as a “rugpull” scheme.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, a rugpull is a “type of fraud scheme in which the creator of a nonfungible token (NFT) or other digital asset project solicits funds from investors for the project and then abruptly abandons the project and fraudulently retains investors’ funds.”

Mayo and Hay, both 23, have been accused of lying to investors and defrauding them of tens of millions of dollars. They are also charged with threatening a project manager who attempted to expose the fraud.

The video below breaks down Mayo and his alleged role in the scheme:

Mayo is originally from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. A sprinter, he placed 9th at the 2019 Pennsylvania AAA Boys’ State Championship meet in the 50 free and finished high school with a lifetime best of 20.60.

While he committed to swim at the University of North Carolina, and was briefly on the team’s roster, he never swam a meet for the Tarheels. He dropped out of UNC and launched a TikTok account leaning into the hyper-alpha-male niche where he posted videos about things like eating raw chicken to get his hydration instead of drinking water and referring to himself as the “youngest billionaire in the world.”

Among Mayo’s projects was the “Vault of Gems” project, which claimed to be the first NFT project backed by jewelry. He raised millions of dollars on the project and then abandoned it, saying the “marketplace never materialized.”

“Gabriel Hay and Gavin Mayo allegedly defrauded investors in digital asset projects of tens of millions of dollars and threatened an individual who attempted to expose their roles in these fraudulent schemes,” said Principal Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Fraudsters take advantage of new technologies and financial products to steal investors’ hard-earned money. The department is committed to protecting investors and will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to root out fraud involving cryptocurrency and other digital assets and bring offenders to justice.”

“For three years, Hay and Mayo apparently lied to their investors in order to defraud them out of millions of dollars,” said HSI Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger. “Such technological fraud schemes cost investors millions of dollars every year. Just because such crimes aren’t violent does not mean they are victimless. HSI will continue to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle such cryptocurrency fraud networks.”

“Whenever a new investment trend occurs, scammers are sure to follow,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada for the Central District of California. “My office and our law enforcement partners will continue our efforts to protect consumers and punish wrongdoers involved in crypto fraud.”

Each have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of stalking.

According to the Justice Department, if convicted, they each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each of the conspiracy and wire fraud counts and a maximum penalty of five years on the stalking count, meaning a maximum of 65 years of jail time are on the table.

This has become one of the highest-profile cryptocurrency and NFT fraud cases to be prosecuted in the United States. In the last 18 months, convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and Caroline Ellison was sentenced to two years in prison for their role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which was described as one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.