A new celebrity memecoin by alleged serial scammer Sahil Arora has raised over $300,000 in a token presale carrying the name of Australian musician Iggy Azalea.
Posts from Azalea’s X account distanced the artist from Arora’s presale on Tuesday while adding that a crypto project had been planned.
“Basically I was interested in making a legit coin with utility but Sahil tried it n thought I wouldn’t see his weirdo lil presale telegram shit,” Azalea’s account said in a now-deleted post on X.
The Australian rapper reportedly quit Twitter last year to escape “bad vibes.” She also announced a hiatus from the platform in 2015.
Azalea’s brand joins the growing list of public figures entering the world of memecoins through some form of association with Arora.
American rapper “Rich the Kid” (Dimitri Leslie Roger) publicly accused Arora of hacking his X account to promote the recently launched “RICH” token.
Meanwhile, Olympic medalist Caitlyn Jenner also claimed that Arora scammed her during her own token launch, which reached over $40 million in market capitalization since its launch on May 27, according to data from Dexscreener.
Related: Scam crypto projects using stolen funds for liquidity disappear
Jenner’s token lost about 50% of its peak market cap, as of 9:30 am UTC, May 28.
This week, Arora’s alleged illicit activities are drawing public attention because of his involvement in celebrity memecoin projects. He has been accused of several scams, including Avalanche-based rug pulls, which reportedly earned him small amounts in stolen fees.
A Telegram channel details a recent token launch campaign where participants accuse Arora of conducting a rug pull, a common exit scam in the memecoin scene.
An investor in that project who spoke to Cointelegraph on the condition of anonymity said that the liquidity was removed within five minutes of the coin’s launch.
“If I can remember vividly, I don’t think he got more than 6-8 AVAX for $RICH,” the investor said.
Additionally, Arora is accused of being the mastermind behind an alleged rug pull tied to former National Basketball Association star Dwight Howard.
But Arora denies that his campaigns on Avalanche are scams, saying people “couldn’t time right entries so they got burned.”
“Tons of people make big from my launches,” Arora told Cointelegraph. “The few that don’t become haters.”
According to a 2017 article by the Times of India, Arora dropped out of Pathways School, an international school, to launch a taxi application.
Related: Caitlyn Jenner joins Rich the Kid alleging they were ‘scammed’
He has since founded numerous businesses, including payments project ZelaaPayAE and influencer platform Habibi.
A former contractor for ZelaaPayAE, who talked to Cointelegraph on the condition of anonymity, said that he was added to the website despite just working on one order for Arora.
The contractor claims that Arora failed to pay 800 British pounds he owed until he was threatened with being reported to the authorities.
Also in 2017, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Indian payments giant PayTM, publicly accused Arora of identity theft.
Magazine: Meme coins: Betrayal of crypto’s ideals… or its true purpose?
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