An active-duty airman and a co-developer rug pull $400,000 in Solana NFTs
Devin Alan Rhoden, an active-duty US Air Force member stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, and Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr. minted three Solana NFT collections — UndeadApes, Undead Lady Apes and Undead Tombstone — collecting nearly $400,000 before abandoning the projects and laundering the proceeds through Tornado Cash and cross-blockchain "chain-hopping." Rhoden pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November 2024 to five years of probation. Nowlin was found guilty by a federal jury the same year and faced sentencing on a maximum five-year prison term.
- Year
- 2022
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $400,000
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- NFT and crypto token rug pulls
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-16
The facts, as recorded
- Devin Alan Rhoden, 25, of Pinellas Park, Florida, an active-duty US Air Force member (aliases "Denny" and "Deviinz"), marketed the projects on Discord and X.
- Berman Jerry Nowlin Jr., 21, of Huntsville, Alabama (aliases "Repulse" and "Zayous"), served as developer, building the art engine and coding the Solana smart contracts.
- The pair minted UndeadApes and Undead Lady Apes at roughly $5 per NFT, which traded as high as $360 on the secondary market, then launched a third collection, Undead Tombstone.
- On 19 April 2022 they minted 632 Undead Tombstone NFTs before abruptly abandoning the project — a rug pull that collected approximately $135,000; the three collections combined netted nearly $400,000.
- Proceeds were laundered through the Tornado Cash mixing service and "chain-hopped" between the Solana and Ethereum blockchains before conversion to US dollars in bank accounts.
- Rhoden pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering on 24 May 2024 and was sentenced on 20 November 2024 to five years of probation.
- A federal jury found Nowlin guilty of the same charges on 1 November 2024; he faced a maximum five-year federal prison term, with sentencing scheduled for 23 January 2025.
- HSI Tampa Assistant Special Agent in Charge John Dumas: "These cybercriminals concocted a scheme to defraud investors through a grand illusion and orchestrated a 'rug pull' to steal money from unsuspecting people, and laundered their ill-gotten gains though other cybercurrencies."
Why this case matters
Most rug pulls on this site’s cases are pseudonymous operators who are never identified or never caught. This one is the opposite: both defendants were quickly unmasked, and one of them held a US government security clearance as an active-duty Air Force member at the time of the fraud — a reminder that rug pulls are not run exclusively from anonymous offshore accounts.
A pattern across three launches
UndeadApes and Undead Lady Apes minted and traded normally first, building the track record and community trust the pair then spent on a third collection, Undead Tombstone, before abandoning it hours after the mint. Using two working projects to sell a third one that was never going to deliver is a documented pattern, not a one-off decision.
Laundering through Tornado Cash and chain-hopping
The government’s account of what happened to the money is specific: Tornado Cash to break the on-chain link between wallets, then “chain-hopping” — converting funds between Solana and Ethereum — before the proceeds became ordinary US dollars in a bank account. Both steps are documented laundering techniques, not incidental detail.
Two outcomes from one scheme
Rhoden’s guilty plea produced a five-year probation sentence — no prison time — while Nowlin was convicted by a jury and faced a maximum of five years in federal prison at sentencing. The same rug pull produced two different paths through the justice system depending on whether the defendant pleaded guilty or went to trial.
The caveat
Rhoden’s guilty plea and sentence are final. Nowlin’s guilty verdict is likewise final, but this page was last reviewed before his scheduled sentencing date and the sources cited here do not report a specific sentence for him — only the guilty verdict and the maximum penalty he faced.
Sources
- Jury Finds Non-Fungible Token Developer Guilty of Defrauding Investors and Laundering Proceeds Through Solana and Ethereum Blockchains. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement / Homeland Security Investigations. Accessed 2026-09-16. Supports: Defendant names, ages, locations, aliases, project names, dollar amounts, mint prices, the chain-hopping and Tornado Cash laundering method, the plea and verdict dates, the sentencing dates and maximum penalty, and the John Dumas quote.
- MacDill airman gets 5 years of probation in 'Undead Apes' blockchain fraud. Tampa Bay Times. Accessed 2026-09-16. Supports: Rhoden's Air Force service at MacDill Air Force Base, the actual sentence imposed — five years of probation — and the $135,000 and $400,000 figures.
- Co-creator of UndeadApes NFTs found guilty of fraud and money laundering in 'rug pull' scheme. The Art Newspaper. Accessed 2026-09-16. Supports: The division of roles between Rhoden (marketing) and Nowlin (development), and confirmation of the jury verdict date and sentencing schedule.