Someone Stole Seth Green's Bored Ape, Which Was Supposed To Star In His New Show

An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: Actor and producer Seth Green was robbed of several NFTs this month after succumbing to a phishing scam that inadvertently threw a monkey wrench into the plan for his new animated series. The forthcoming show was developed from characters in Green's expansive NFT collection, but in light of the recent hack, the project's blatant crypto optimism has become a tragically ironic reminder of the industry's shadier side. On Saturday, Green teased a trailer for White Horse Tavern at the NFT conference VeeCon. A twee comedy, the show seems to be based on the question, 'What if your friendly neighborhood bartender was Bored Ape Yacht Club #8398?' In an interview with entrepreneur and crypto hype man Gary Vaynerchuk, Green said he wanted to imagine a universe where 'it doesn't matter what you look like, what only matters is your attitude.'

Unfortunately for Green, what also matters is copyright law. And when the actor's NFT collection was pilfered by a scammer in early May, he lost the commercial rights to his show's cartoon protagonist, a scruffy Bored Ape named Fred Simian, whose likeness and usage rights now belong to someone else. 'I bought that ape in July 2021, and have spent the last several months developing and exploiting the IP to make it into the star of this show,' Green told Vaynerchuk. 'Then days before -- his name is Fred by the way -- days before he's set to make his world debut, he's literally kidnapped.' Green did not respond to a tweet from BuzzFeed News regarding the show.

On May 8, an anonymous scammer swiped four of Green's NFTs in a phishing scheme. Green mourned his 'stolen' assets on Twitter, where he announced the losses of a Bored Ape, two Mutant Apes, and a Doodle, which were transferred out of Green's wallet after he unknowingly interacted with a phishing site. One of the Mutant Apes was flipped for $42,000, Motherboard reported. Transaction ledgers show the Bored Ape was also sold by the scammer to a pseudonymous collector known as 'DarkWing84,' who purchased it for more than $200,000. The NFT was then swiftly transferred to a collection called 'GBE_Vault,' which is where it currently sits. If the current owner 'wanted to cause trouble for Seth Green they probably could, because that person becomes the holder' of the commercial usage rights, said Daniel Dubin, an intellectual property attorney at Alston & Bird LLP. Seemingly aware of the problems his ape's new owner could cause, Green has spent the last several days tweeting at DarkWing84 in an attempt to reclaim the Bored Ape. The NFT marketplace OpenSea said it has frozen the tokens and marked all four NFTs taken from Green with 'suspicious activity' warnings.

'We do not have the power to freeze or delist NFTs that exist on decentralized blockchains; however, we do disable the ability to use OpenSea to buy or sell stolen items,' said OpenSea spokesperson Allie Mack.

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