Charles Yeo Launches NFT Collection On 13 Mar, Hopes To Raise $100,000
Although Reform Party’s Charles Yeo was never elected, his performance at GE2020 made him a well-known figure among Singaporeans.
Since then, Mr Yeo has actively spoken about local issues via social media. However, this had landed him in some legal trouble.
Currently, he faces charges for wounding the Christian community’s religious feelings and harassing a police officer.
In a bid to fundraise for the fines and legal fees, Mr Yeo started a Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) collection.
The collection named CharlesDAO (Defence Against Oppression) was launched on Sunday (13 Mar).
Charles Yeo launches CharlesDAO NFT collection
On Sunday (13 Mar), ex-Reform Party chairman Charles Yeo launched an NFT collection named CharlesDAO.
Mr Yeo shared that CharlesDAO represents true believers of DAO, which stands for Defence Against Oppression.
The collection on OpenSea consists of 660 items. They are made up of pictures of Mr Yeo and done in a simplistic meme style, like this one that says, ‘Come with me if you want to 捡 (pick up) cardboard’.
Some echo Mr Yeo’s anti-establishment sentiments, referring to PAP supporters as ‘pappie dog(s)’.
Others take on a lighter, humorous tone like this item of Mr Yeo in his younger days with his arm around a blacked-out silhouette of a girl with the text, ‘Dis could be us but you playin’.’
Each NFT in the CharlesDAO collection is selling at a floor price of 0.02 ETH (S$70). They are selling from now till 20 Mar.
Hopes to raise funds for legal fees and fines
In January, Mr Yeo ran into trouble with the law and began crowdfunding to fund his legal defence. About 4 weeks ago, he shared that he had raised around S$16,000.
On his Instagram highlights, Mr Yeo said he hopes to raise around S$70,000 to S$100,000.
The funds raised will be used to pay for the following:
- legal costs for the POHA and wounding religious feelings cases
- fine imposed for POHA and wounding religious feelings cases
- fine imposed by Singapore Law Society and costs of disciplinary proceedings
- costs of Singapore Law Society disciplinary proceedings related to alleged criminal breach of trust and forgery
He also gave a breakdown of a rough gauge of how much each of the above would cost.
Mr Yeo said he had chosen NFTs as his primary mode of fundraising based on netizens’ suggestions.
In a follow-up Instagram post on 4 Mar, he sought help from the public and shared news of the release of his NFT. He asked Singaporeans to support him in this project.
Faces charges for harassing police & wounding religious feelings
Back in January, Mr Yeo was charged in court for harassing a police officer and wounding Christians’ religious feelings.
Mr Yeo also received 3 counts for attempting to make remarks that wound the religious feelings of Christians.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), he called Christians who view homosexuality as incongruent to their beliefs ‘radical and dogmatic’ in a Facebook post back in Nov 2020.
On another occasion in Feb 2021, Mr Yeo referred to certain churches as ‘homophobes’ with ‘trash agenda’ on his Instagram.
For deliberately wounding religious feelings, he could be jailed up to 3 years, fined, or both, per charge.
He received another 3 counts under the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) for posting Instagram stories with threatening, abusive, and insulting remarks.
In his Instagram stories in Nov 2020 and Jan 2021, he had named the officer, saying he was a ‘pathetic coward and collaborator with an authoritarian regime’.
He went as far as to say that the officer ‘should be tortured before execution’.
If found guilty of POHA, Mr Yeo could be jailed up to a year, fined up to $5,000, or both, per charge.
Mr Yeo also faces criminal breach of trust and forgery charges at his law firm.
A novel way of fundraising
We have heard of NFT creators making it big by selling their work in recent months.
It is certainly a novel and creative idea for Mr Yeo to fundraise through his NFT memes.
Those who would like to check out the CharlesDAO collection can do so here. You can also keep up to date with the collection on Instagram.
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao and OpenSea.
