CluCoin, a Miami-based crypto project’s founder has pleaded guilty to stealing over $1 million from investors, as well as spending the at online casinos.
Austin Michael Taylor, 40, Maryland, the founder of CluCoin, admitted to regularly transferring funds earmarked for CluCoin-related projects to his own personal crypto wallets and then transferring them to online crypto casinos. This is according to court documents filed in a Florida court recently.
In the spring of 2021, Taylor founded CluCoin. He marketed the project to his large Internet following as a streamer as a way to fund charities. That May, after the subsequent ICO of CluCoin, the trading volume and value of the project, declined abruptly. This is according to court documents. Taylor is being lead to steer CluCoin away from its original charity focus.
Over 2022, his lawyers said Taylor was secretly giving away to gambling addiction. This is while he was managing CluCoin and making promises to investors about its activities. It includes the purported development of a metaverse-based video game called “Xenia”. All in all, he transferred $1.14 million worth of investor funds to online casinos. His lawyers said this includes Stake.com.
Last year, in January, Taylor publicly admitted to using investor funds for online gambling and voluntarily surrendered control of the project to his business associates.
On August 15, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. Taylor agreed to charge $1.14 million in ill-gotten gains for victim restitution as part of his plea agreement.
On October 31 at 10:00 am, Taylor is set to be sentenced by United States District Court Judge Jacqueline Becerra of the Southern District of Florida. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
