{"id":129286,"date":"2025-05-15T07:15:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T07:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129286"},"modified":"2025-05-15T07:15:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T07:15:31","slug":"nft-founder-stole-millions-from-bitcoin-project-investors-allege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=129286","title":{"rendered":"NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors allege"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsSeveral investors in a non-fungible token (NFT) project, Hashling NFT, have accused its founder of misappropriating millions of dollars in profits from the project and a closely tied Bitcoin mining operation.
\nAccording to the May 14 court filing in Illinois, the plaintiffs allege that their former business partner, Jonathan Mills, lied about transferring assets from Hashling NFT and at least $3 million from the Bitcoin mining project to a holding company \u2014 Satoshi Labs LLC (formerly known as Proof of Work Labs LLC), which Mills is the founder and CEO of.
\nThe plaintiffs have sued Mills for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, claiming that they have not received any of the equity returns that he supposedly promised.\u00a0
\nThey also claim to have raised a combined $1.46 million from two NFT drops on the Solana and Bitcoin blockchains, but didn\u2019t receive any returns from their investment.\u00a0
\nExcerpt of the plaintiffs\u2019 claims made against Joshua Mills in an Illinois district court. Source: PACERMills allegedly began ghosting them shortly afterward, according to the plaintiffs, adding that he created a flawed shareholder agreement to falsely support his claim that the holding company controlled the project’s assets.
\nThis was \u201crife with errors\u201d to support his lie, the plaintiffs said.
\nAccording to the supposedly flawed shareholder agreement, Mills was to receive a 67% equity share in Proof of Work Labs (before he later renamed it to Satoshi Labs) while several other investors contributed up to $20,000 into the company in exchange for just 2% equity.
\nHe allegedly assured them that their equity stakes would remain unchanged despite the name change.
\nMills also held a 67% voting stake on all matters related to Proof of Work Labs (at the time) while no other partner held more than 2%.
\nCointelegraph reached out to Mills but didn\u2019t receive an immediate response.
\nMills supposedly didn\u2019t know much about NFTs
\nThe Hashling NFT project was born from a different idea that Mills had initially discussed with one of the plaintiffs, Dustin Steerman, who initially established rapport with Mills from earlier collaborations.
\nThey followed through with the Hashling NFT project despite Mills initially telling Steerman that he had no money and no NFT-related experience to contribute to the project.
\nRelated: Bitcoin NFTs surpass Ronin in all-time sales
\n\u201c[Mills] had a willingness to help push the project forward, and he did have an idea at the start,\u201d the investor\u2019s attorney, Clinton Ind of Ind Legal Group LLC told Law360.
\n“Even though that wasn’t the final idea, it did embolden it, and \u2026 everyone kind of enjoyed working together in those early stages.”
\nTo ensure the Hashling NFT project\u2019s success, Mills and Steerman recruited other investors, now also plaintiffs, to assist with everything from the NFT art and social media marketing to even attending NFT conferences in New York.
\nMills even got his girlfriend to invest in the Hashling NFTs project, the plaintiffs claimed.
\nIn addition to the fraud and breach of fiduciary actions, the plaintiffs also requested a constructive trust over the project\u2019s assets and full legal restitution.
\nMagazine: Danger signs for Bitcoin as retail abandons it to institutions: Sky WeeRead More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Cointelegraph.com NewsSeveral investors in a non-fungible token (NFT) project, Hashling NFT, have accused its founder of misappropriating millions of dollars in profits from the project and a closely tied… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129286"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}