MIAMI – The founder of CluCoin, a cryptocurrency token undertaking in Miami, was sentenced to 27 months in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch and ordered to pay restitution and forfeit belongings within the quantity of $1.14 million. The sentence comes after the defendant pleaded responsible to wire fraud in August 2024.
Austin Michael Taylor, 41, of Sykesville, Maryland, was the founder of a cryptocurrency undertaking CluCoin and proprietor of CLU LLC, an organization included and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Fla., that dealt with CluCoin’s operations.
Taylor leveraged his sizable social media following to generate curiosity in a digital token he referred to as “CLU.” Taylor generated curiosity in CLU’s preliminary coin providing (ICO), which is a capital elevating occasion during which an entity gives buyers a novel digital token in trade for a extra established cryptocurrency or fiat foreign money. Taylor created a “white paper” for CluCoin, which was meant to coach and entice buyers to take part within the ICO, which promised to have a charitable focus. After elevating investor funds, Taylor efficiently launched CluCoin’s ICO on Could 19, 2021. Taylor then shifted CluCoin’s focus to different tasks he devised: the minting of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the event of a pc sport and a metaverse platform.
Taylor organized and paid for an occasion referred to as “NFTCon: Into the Metaverse,” which befell in a resort in Miami on April 4 and 5, 2022, to drive curiosity and funding in CLU, CluCoin and associated tasks. Shortly after the convention, in Could 2022, Taylor gained the power to make withdrawals from the cryptocurrency handle he managed into which a portion of the CLU investor funds routinely flowed. From Could via December 2022, Taylor despatched roughly $1.14 million in investor funds to his private account at a digital foreign money trade after which used the funds at a number of on-line casinos, the place he misplaced these investor funds to playing.
U.S. Lawyer Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and Performing Particular Agent in Cost Justin E. Fleck of the FBI, Miami Area Workplace, introduced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Decide Jacqueline Becerra.
FBI Miami and the Washington Area Places of work investigated the case. Assistant U.S Lawyer Manolo Reboso prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Lawyer Emily Stone is dealing with asset forfeiture.
Recognized victims have been notified through NFT. If you happen to invested in CLU, imagine you’re a sufferer, and/or obtained an NFT, please go to https://www.fbi.gov/CluCoinInvestors to supply related data to the FBI.
Associated courtroom paperwork and data could also be discovered on the web site of the District Courtroom for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, below case quantity 24-cr-20308.
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