Haliey Welch, higher referred to as the “Hawk tuah lady,” says the Federal Bureau of Investigation briefly probed her after her “memecoin catastrophe” — the failed launch of a token in her picture that she promoted.
Welch mentioned in a Could 21 episode of her “Speak Tuah” podcast that the FBI confirmed up at her grandmother’s home trying to communicate to her over the Hawk Tuah (HAWK) crypto token, which many crypto commentators have known as an exit rip-off.
“After the coin launch, the feds got here to granny’s home and knocked on her door, and she or he known as me, having a coronary heart assault, saying: ‘The FBI is right here after you, what have you ever achieved?’”
Welch mentioned she handed over her cellphone to the FBI and met with brokers who “interrogated me, asking me questions and all the pieces else associated to crypto.”
“They cleared me, I used to be good to go,” Welch mentioned.
Welch went viral for her response about an oral intercourse approach in a vox pop interview posted to YouTube in June.
The HAWK memecoin, based mostly on her viral catchphrase, launched in early December and nearly instantly misplaced 90% of its worth and blockchain analytics agency Bubblemaps’ alleged insider wallets and snipers purchased up and dumped large portions of the token at launch.
Welch mentioned on her podcast that the Securities and Trade Fee additionally requested for her cellphone, and she or he despatched it off “for 2 or three days” earlier than she was cleared.
Welch’s lawyer James Sallah advised TMZ in March that the SEC “closed the investigation with out making any findings towards, or in search of any financial sanctions from, Haliey.”
“I trusted the unsuitable individuals”
Welch admitted understanding little or no about crypto earlier than the HAWK memecoin and mentioned she “trusted the unsuitable individuals” for the launch.
She claimed an organization, which she mentioned she couldn’t identify for authorized causes, was in full management of her X account, which posted movies of her selling the memecoin.
Welch mentioned she was despatched strains to document on video, which had been then posted on her X account by somebody she trusted however might additionally not legally identify.
She added that on the day of HAWK’s launch, she “type of knew one thing was up” and was pulled right into a room the place a workforce of individuals advised her to speak on a livestream with YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, higher referred to as Coffeezilla.
“Coffeezilla acquired on there and so they’re like ‘Mute it, mute it,’” Welch mentioned. “No one warned me about this man in any respect, like no person in any respect, they did not inform me he was like a crypto wizard, that is precisely what he’s — he ate me the fuck up.”
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Welch mentioned she was solely paid a advertising charge and “didn’t make a dime from the coin itself,” which she mentioned had been completely spent on authorized and public relations charges.
Regardless of being cleared of any authorized wrongdoing, Welch took some accountability, admitting that she let lots of her followers down who invested within the coin:
“It makes me really feel actually unhealthy that they trusted me, and I led them to one thing that I didn’t have sufficient information about. I didn’t have sufficient information about crypto to be getting concerned with it. And I knew that, however I acquired talked into it, and I trusted the unsuitable individuals.”
A gaggle of HAWK consumers sued the alleged creators of the token in December, claiming Alex Schultz, the token’s backing Tuah the Moon Basis, the token launchpad overHere Restricted, and its founder Clinton So promoted and offered HAWK as an unregistered safety.
Welch wasn’t named as a defendant.
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