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Haliey Welch, higher often known 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 said in a Could 21 episode of her “Discuss Tuah” podcast that the FBI confirmed up at her grandmother’s home seeking 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 he or she known as me, having a coronary heart assault, saying: ‘The FBI is right here after you, what have you ever accomplished?’”
Welch mentioned she handed over her telephone to the FBI and met with brokers who “interrogated me, asking me questions and all the things 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 method in a vox pop interview posted to YouTube in June.
The HAWK memecoin, based mostly on her viral catchphrase, launched in early December and virtually instantly misplaced 90% of its value and blockchain analytics agency Bubblemaps’ alleged insider wallets and snipers purchased up and dumped huge portions of the token at launch.
Welch mentioned on her podcast that the Securities and Alternate Fee additionally requested for her telephone, and he or she despatched it off “for 2 or three days” earlier than she was cleared.
Welch’s lawyer James Sallah told TMZ in March that the SEC “closed the investigation with out making any findings towards, or searching for any financial sanctions from, Haliey.”
“I trusted the unsuitable individuals”
Welch admitted knowing very little 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 title 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 file on video, which have been then posted on her X account by somebody she trusted however might additionally not legally title.
She added that on the day of HAWK’s launch, she “sort of knew one thing was up” and was pulled right into a room the place a group of individuals instructed her to speak on a livestream with YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, higher often known as Coffeezilla.
“Coffeezilla bought on there and so they’re like ‘Mute it, mute it,’” Welch mentioned. “No person 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 and marketing 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 legal 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 dangerous 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 bought talked into it, and I trusted the unsuitable individuals.”
A bunch of HAWK patrons 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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