Latest news with #HawkTuahGirl
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Hawk Tuah Girl Opens Up About FBI Investigation Over Crypto Scandal (Exclusive)
Haliey Welch, known as 'Hawk Tuah Girl' after last summer's viral video, is sharing new details about the aftermath of her recent cryptocurrency scandal, as seen in footage exclusive to The Hollywood Reporter. In the new episode of her podcast Talk Tuah, Welch chats with longtime friend Chelsea Bradford about the crypto crash in December of her meme coin $HAWK, which led investors to file a lawsuit in New York against its creators. Welch became an overnight social media sensation last summer after her on-the-street interview with Tim & Dee TV in which she described a supposedly foolproof way to excite a man in the bedroom. More from The Hollywood Reporter Hawk Tuah Girl Addresses Crypto Scandal: "It Really Hurt My Feelings" Why Top Auteurs Like Sean Baker Worship Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep" Joe Rogan Scolded by Own Guest for Pushing Conspiracy Theories Welch shares that the FBI knocked on her grandmother's door in the aftermath of the controversy. 'They wanted to see my phone, so I was like, 'OK, well, that's not a problem,'' Welch says in the podcast episode. She adds about what she went through in the process: 'Interrogating me, asking me questions and everything else related to crypto. They went through my phone, so they cleared me. I was good to go.' She continues, 'And then the SEC picked it up. They didn't want to talk with me, but they wanted my phone. So I sent my phone off to them for two or three days, and then I guess they cloned my phone, copied it, something. But they went through my phone, I was cleared from them, and I wasn't named on the lawsuit, either.' During the conversation, Welch acknowledges that it 'makes me throw up' that her fans trusted her to have lent her likeness to a meme coin about which she didn't have full knowledge. She adds that this experience has taught her important lessons regarding who to trust. She also discusses the amount of money that was allegedly lost by the coin's investors. According to Welch, the amount of lost money was initially claimed to be $1.2 million but was actually closer to $180,000. 'I don't have anything to hide,' Welch notes. She adds, 'I wish we knew then what we know now.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
New York Post
20-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
‘Hawk Tuah' girl Haliey Welch ‘didn't know' how crypto worked before meme coin disaster, received death threats after
Haliey 'Hawk Tuah' Welch claims she had no idea what cryptocurrency was or how it worked before her disastrous meme coin launch. The viral sensation abruptly stopped her podcast and went to ground in December 2024 after the digital coin she backed, $HAWK, briefly soared then crashed. 'I couldn't tell you how crypto worked the day that coin launched,' she said on her podcast Talking Tuah, speaking for the first time about the scandal. 'I had no idea. I don't know. So that screwed me,' she added. The coin reached a market capitalization of $500 million before becoming worthless in a matter of hours, losing money for almost everyone who invested in it. The launch then became subject to investigations by the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, during which time Welch's legal team told her to stop broadcasting. 7 The Hawk Tuah Girl cryptocurrency, known as $HAWK, rose and fell at lightning speed. overHere 7 Haliey 'Hawk Tuah Girl' Welch enjoyed celebrity status, showing up at events such as the weigh-ins of Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Anadolu via Getty Images Welch — who initially went viral last year after she used the term 'hawk tuah' to describe a sex act in an 'on the street' interview outside a nightclub — was cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the meme coin and says she didn't receive any profits from it. 'I got paid a marketing fee,' she said. 'That's all I made. I did not make a dime from the coin itself.' She also told followers she feels bad for anyone who got scammed. 'It makes me feel really bad that they trusted me, and I led them to something that I did not have enough knowledge about. I did not have enough knowledge about crypto to be getting involved with it. And I knew that, but I got talked into it, and I trusted the wrong people.' Welch, 22, said she wasn't allowed to disclose the name of the person who allegedly hoodwinked her into putting her name to the failed coin. However, a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of investors in the coin in New York named Clinton So as the person who launched the coin and social media influencer Alex Larson Schultz as promoting it online. Both are defendants in the case, which is ongoing. 7 Haliey Welch says that she did not understand cryptocurrency, even though a coin was launched with her name on it. Getty Images for Spotify 7 The value of $HAWK rose quickly and plummeted after so-called snipers his their sell buttons. Yahoo Finance A spokesperson for a company associated with the defendants told Bloomberg news they are 'confident that we have done nothing wrong.' Welch said she spent all the money she was paid to promote the coin to deal with the situation. 'I paid for PR crisis, a new lawyer, stuff like that … Every bit of it went to that. So I've really come out with nothing. All that trouble for nothing.' She also talked about how after the coin's drop she received a barrage of abuse both online and in person, explaining who she felt like she was 'going to get shot,' on a trip to an airport, and how she received a message from a guy who threatened to 'chop me up and feed me to his dog.' 7 Following the launch of $HAWK, Haliey Welch's granny had FBI agents at her door. Getty Images 7 Soon after the rapid rise and fall of $HAWK Haliey Welch feared that people wanted her dead. GC Images 7 Despite all the tumult, Welch netted no money from the crypto she inspired and was not named in the lawsuit. Tim & Dee TV The FBI also came to Welch's grandmother's house. 'After the coin launch, the feds came to Granny's house and knocked on her door,' remembered Welch. 'She called me, having a heart attack, and said, 'The FBI is here after you. What have you done?'' Agents insisted she wasn't in trouble, but, Walsh said, 'They wanted to see my phone' and scheduled for her to be interviewed in Nashville. Once there, 'They interrogated me, asking me questions and everything else related to crypto, all the people on my phone that I've talked to about crypto. They went through my phone. So they cleared me. And then the SEC picked it up … they wanted my phone.' Welch says she 'gave them everything' they wanted and is now in the clear. 'It was definitely scary, but at the end of the day … I was cleared and wasn't named in the lawsuit. Legally, I wasn't in any trouble.' 'But,' she added, 'it was a big mess.'
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contributor: Why the Trump administration is easing up on crypto crime at exactly the wrong moment
The Securities and Exchange Commission is scaling back its cryptocurrency enforcement unit. Why does this matter? Because crime pervades the crypto industry. Just last month, a hacker stole about $1.5 billion from the crypto exchange Bybit in the biggest theft the industry has ever experienced. As this incident suggests, crypto crime seems to be getting worse, not better. Indeed, crypto crime likely broke records last year. Illicit crypto addresses received an estimated total of $40 billion to as much as $75 billion in 2024. Read more: Contributor: Great documentaries reveal history's truth. Unregulated AI threatens to distort it Cryptocurrency is being used to perpetrate crimes that affect all Americans. One of the best examples is ransomware, malicious software that prevents users from accessing their computer files, systems or networks unless they pay a ransom. Crypto is the dominant form of payment demanded in these attacks because it enables cybercriminals to receive money anonymously and quickly transfer their illicit gains overseas. Ransomware attacks reached an all-time high in 2024, targeting sectors that Americans rely on every day. In February 2024, for example, the insurer UnitedHealth Group experienced an attack that affected hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies and millions of patients across the nation. UnitedHealth paid a ransom of about $22 million in bitcoin. Read more: Silicon Valley's shift from blue to red is a mirage Like ransomware attacks, meme coin 'rug pulls' can have many victims. A meme coin is a cryptocurrency that is inspired by a celebrity, meme or internet trend. They're highly volatile, speculative assets that are susceptible to fraud. In a rug pull, insiders buy up a large share of meme coin tokens in advance and then dump them after the price soars, leaving regular investors with tokens that are essentially worthless. One recent example is the case of Haliey Welch, who gained internet fame as the 'Hawk Tuah Girl' when she was featured in a TikTok video that went viral. In December, after parlaying her newfound celebrity into a merchandise line and podcast, she launched a meme coin. The coin's price initially surged, but its value quickly plummeted by more than 90% after a small group of owners sold off more than 80% of the token's supply. One investor wrote on social media, 'I am a huge fan of Hawk Tuah but you took my life savings.' While rug pulls dupe multiple investors at a time, many crypto crimes target individual victims. One particularly devastating crypto fraud is known as 'pig butchering' or 'romance baiting.' These scams involve online criminals luring their victims into fake romances and then stealing their money by inducing them to invest in cryptocurrency. Many people lose their life savings to these scams. One California victim, Shai Plonski, said he thought he had found the "perfect woman" on Facebook. Plonski and 'Sandy' traded messages about their supposedly shared interests in yoga and poetry until Plonski revealed that his business was struggling, at which point Sandy suggested he invest in crypto with her guidance. Plonski eventually put his life savings into what he thought was a cryptocurrency investment and, when he became concerned, found he couldn't withdraw his funds. He was one of more than 40,000 victims of these scams in the United States. Another scam on the rise involves bitcoin ATMs. A scammer persuades a victim to deposit cash into a bitcoin ATM by using a QR code. The ATM then converts the cash to bitcoin that is immediately transferred to the scammer's digital wallet. Seniors are particularly susceptible to bitcoin ATM scams. Beaufort County, S.C., which has a large senior population, reported $3.1 million in losses to crypto scams last year, including several involving bitcoin ATMs. One retired healthcare worker got a call purportedly from the sheriff's office, informing her that she had missed her jury duty and must post a $7,500 bond to remain free until her court date. She deposited the cash into a bitcoin ATM and lost the money. These are just a few of the ways in which criminals use crypto to harm ordinary Americans. Unfortunately, there are many others, some of which are used to finance terrorism. This is why we should be strengthening our efforts to prevent crypto crime, not weakening them. The SEC's new leaders say they don't want crypto to 'be a haven for fraudsters.' Unfortunately, it already is. It's up to them and other regulators to protect the American people from the crime that pervades this industry. Benjamin Schiffrin is the director of securities policy for Better Markets. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
