{"id":22962,"date":"2025-05-20T12:48:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T12:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/?p=22962"},"modified":"2025-12-29T11:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T11:15:49","slug":"hashling-nft-founder-sued-for-alleged-multi-million-dollar-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/hashling-nft-founder-sued-for-alleged-multi-million-dollar-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Hashling NFT Founder Sued for Alleged Multi-Million Dollar Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Investors have filed a fraud lawsuit<\/strong> against the founder of the Hashling NFT<\/strong> project, alleging that millions of dollars<\/strong> from the NFT initiative and a connected Bitcoin mining<\/a><\/em> operation<\/strong> were misappropriated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to court documents filed on May 14<\/strong> in Illinois<\/strong>, the plaintiffs claim that Jonathan Mills<\/strong>, a former business associate, misled them<\/strong> by transferring assets from Hashling NFT<\/strong> and at least $3 million<\/strong> from a Bitcoin mining project<\/strong> into Satoshi<\/a><\/em> Labs LLC<\/strong>\u2014a holding company he founded and operates as CEO. The company was formerly known as Proof of Work Labs LLC<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Investors Accuse Mills of Fraud and Breach of Trust<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The plaintiffs allege that they never received the equity returns<\/strong> they were promised. They also claim that $1.46 million<\/strong> was raised through two NFT sales<\/strong> conducted on the Solana<\/strong> and Bitcoin blockchains<\/strong>, yet no returns were ever distributed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the lawsuit, Mills<\/strong> eventually cut off communication<\/strong> with the investors and produced a flawed shareholder agreement<\/strong>, allegedly to falsely claim control of the project’s assets under his holding company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement stated that Mills would hold a 67% equity stake<\/strong> in Proof of Work Labs<\/strong> (later renamed Satoshi Labs<\/strong>), while other investors\u2014despite contributing up to $20,000<\/strong>\u2014would receive only 2% stakes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mills allegedly assured investors<\/strong> that the name change<\/strong> would not affect their equity, yet the same agreement also gave him 67% voting power<\/strong>, while no other partner<\/strong> had more than 2%<\/strong> voting rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cointelegraph<\/strong> attempted to reach Mills<\/strong> but received no immediate response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Mills Had Limited Knowledge of NFTs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Hashling NFT<\/strong> project originated from an earlier idea discussed between Mills and one of the plaintiffs, Dustin Steerman<\/strong>, who had previously collaborated with Mills. Despite initially admitting that he lacked both funding and experience in NFTs<\/strong>, Mills continued to lead the Hashling initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Clinton Ind<\/strong>, the investors\u2019 lawyer from Ind Legal Group LLC<\/strong>, Mills “had the desire to move the project forward and initially contributed ideas,” even if they were not final. \u201cEveryone enjoyed collaborating in those early stages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support the success of the Hashling project, Mills and Steerman brought in several other investors\u2014now plaintiffs\u2014who contributed in areas ranging from NFT art creation<\/strong> and social media marketing<\/strong> to attending NFT conferences<\/strong> in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plaintiffs even allege that Mills persuaded his girlfriend<\/strong> to invest in the Hashling NFT project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Full Legal Compensation Demanded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to fraud<\/strong> and breach of trust<\/strong> allegations, the plaintiffs are seeking the establishment of a constructive trust<\/strong> over project assets and are demanding full legal compensation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You Might Also Like;<\/h3>\n\n\n
    <\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Investors have filed a fraud lawsuit against the founder of the Hashling NFT project, alleging that millions of dollars from the NFT initiative and a connected Bitcoin mining operation were misappropriated. According to court documents filed on May 14 in Illinois, the plaintiffs claim that Jonathan Mills, a former business associate, misled them by transferring …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAown96uCw:productID":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[309],"tags":[316],"class_list":["post-22962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web3new","tag-nft"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metaverseplanet.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}