Free Palestine, Rug Later: The Bizarre Tale of Crypto's 'Robin Hood' Who Faked Prison, Rugged Two Memecoins, and Called It Charity

William Banks' brief career in crypto is one of the industry's most bizarre tales — involving months of staged content, a fake jailbreak that earned over 10 million views, and two memecoin rug pulls that he claimed raised approximately $50,000 for Palestinian aid organizations. If this were a movie, you'd walk out. But this is crypto Twitter, where the plot gets worse and the rug pulls get more charitable.

On Pump Fun, where over 99% of tokens collapse to near-zero, the self-proclaimed comedian tried to stand apart by using philanthropy to justify his antics. "Thank you to the crypto community for buying my pretend memecoin and helping me to raise $50,000 for the crisis in Gaza," he said about a very real, not-at-all pretend memecoin he created called "Free Palestine." Nothing says "humanitarian crisis" quite like a token named after it that exists solely to drain degen wallets.

He also proclaimed, "William Banks is Robin Hood," childishly assuming that everybody who lost money in his memecoin deserved their assets less than leaders of foreign aid organizations. Moreover, the mythical Robin Hood didn't create deep-fake videos to harm his Merry Men before giving to the poor. He just stole from the rich. Banks skipped the middleman and just stole from the degens directly.

Banks' curious story began in December 2023, when the 20-something comedian from Brooklyn stole Israeli yard signs from lawns in Westport, Connecticut. Police charged him with sixth-degree larceny. He duly took advantage of his new-found infamy, plastering his mugshot on social media in an effort to shift some merch. Nothing says "entrepreneur" like turning a misdemeanor into a merch drop.

In October 2024, he announced an eight-month prison sentence on X, even though he received no such punishment. He then spent four months posting content from what appeared to be a jail cell — including football tosses, theological discussions, and on February 20, 2025, a video of himself crawling under a security fence during a supposed prison riot. The production quality was genuinely impressive. The acting, less so.

However, the Connecticut Department of Corrections has no record of Banks being incarcerated. Public records turned up a backstage casting call for a project titled "Jail Saga Reality Show," posted by a company that lists Banks as a co-owner. When Cryptopolitan pressed him directly, Banks answered, "It's real. I recreated it of course, but it's real. It happened." For those keeping track at home, that's the logical equivalent of saying "I faked it, but it's real."

The escape video attracted precisely the kind of attention from crypto promoters that Banks claimed he didn't want. For months, he's vehemently espoused hatred for crypto, despite his extensive use of the industry's tactics. Among those who reached out to Banks was "Jester," a self-proclaimed "memecoin marketer" who uses a Retardio NFT profile picture. Banks denied working with him directly, although Jester claims he helped Banks launch four tokens. The Retardio NFT really ties the room together.

Either way, in the media wave of his manufactured prison break, memecoin operators sent Banks unsolicited portions of token supply in the hopes that he'd mention them to his growing following. "They were using me, so I decided to use them back," Banks justified. A fascinating ethical framework, truly. "They used me" is certainly one defense against "I rugged thousands of people."

He launched White Moses (MOSES) on Solana-based Pump Fun. After pumping to a market capitalization of a few hundred thousand dollars, Banks sold his holdings in three liquidations. The first sale of about $14,000 caused a 75% price drop within eight seconds. After a partial recovery, two further sales drove the token down 96% within a few more seconds. For those doing the math at home, that's a 96% drop in what can only be described as "very fast." The man has timing.

He followed MOSES with a second token called William Banks (BANKS), and ran the same sequence. His total haul was approximately $50,000. On social media, he then shared receipts showing payments totaling that amount to Palestinian aid organizations. The receipts were real. The moral high ground, less so.