Langgam Pos - Austin Michael Taylor, the founder of CluCoin, has confessed to using approximately $1.14 million in crypto investor funds for personal purposes, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
The 40-year-old admitted to transferring the investor funds from CluCoin into his personal account. Taylor reportedly leveraged his significant social media following to generate interest in a digital token called CLU. He promoted the CLU Initial Coin Offering (ICO), a fundraising event where unique digital tokens were offered to investors in exchange for cryptocurrency or traditional fiat currency.
Despite promising that the funds would be used for charitable purposes, Taylor diverted the money for personal use, including gambling. His gambling activities resulted in significant financial losses.
"From May 2022 to December 2022, Taylor transferred approximately $1.14 million in investor funds to his personal account at a virtual currency exchange and used the funds in several online casinos, ultimately losing the investor funds through gambling," the U.S. Attorney's Office stated.
The fundraising scheme also included an event called "NFTCon: Into the Metaverse" in April 2022, aimed at attracting more investments. Shortly after, Taylor gained access to the investor funds and transferred them to his personal account, only to lose them in online gambling. Taylor's sentencing is scheduled for October 31, where he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud charges.
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