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.
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.”
