Man Dies by Suicide After Being Convicted of ‘Rug Pull,’ Family Says

Berman Jerry Nowlin has died by an apparent suicide as he awaited sentencing for his part in an NFT “rug pull” involving wire fraud and money laundering, his family told the Tampa Bay Times.

In November 2024, a U.S. court found the 21-year-old guilty of helping orchestrate the sale of a NFT “rug pull” worth $400,000. Nowlin, alongside the 25-year-old Devin Alan Rhoden, carried out the sale of two Solana NFT collections before cancelling a third collection.

The Department of Justice report explained that these projects were successful due to “outright false statements,” including partners with “prominent businesses” and utility that holders would be granted. Not only that, but the cancelled third collection was defined as a rug pull by the Department due to the team deleting Discord and Twitter accounts after taking payment.

The NFT collections were sold in 2022, starting with “Undead Apes” then “Undead Lady Apes” before the sale of “Undead Tombstone” was cut short. The total brought in by the duo totalled almost $400,000 as hundreds of victims invested in the projects.

Rhoden pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in May 2024, while Nowlin took it to trial but was found guilty in November.

In a heartfelt interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Nowlin’s mother says that Nowlin became deeply depressed and withdrawn following the guilty verdict. His family argues that he was an unaware accessory to the scheme, pointing to Rhoden as the one to blame.

“In his eyes, I don’t think he thought he did anything wrong,” Nowlin’s brother, Daniel Barker, said. “My brother was just a young, naïve kid that kind of got taken advantage of.”

The argument here is that Nowlin was the developer of the projects—in charge of the behind-the-scenes creation of the tokens—while Rhoden was heading the marketing side of the project. Nowlin’s attorney, J. Jervis Wise, argued that the 21-year-old had no knowledge of the rug pull plans.

“Nowlin didn’t have any knowledge of what Rhoden was doing,” Wise told the Tampa Bay Times. “Nowlin didn’t join in any plan with Rhoden to try to defraud anyone.”

Ultimately, however, the Department of Justice found evidence that Nowlin had played a direct role in the scheme. Namely, the report found that he executed the money laundering via “chain-hopping” and the use of illegal crypto mixers that obfuscate the sender and receiver of tokens. The funds were traced directly back to his bank account.

His January sentencing was set to see him face up to five years in federal prison. But on December 21, Nowlin died at his Alabama home. His cause of death is currently unclear but his family told Tampa Bay Times that he took his own life.

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