The founder of Miami-based crypto project CluCoin has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million from investors and spending the money at online casinos. Austin Michael Taylor, 40, of Miami, Florida, faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud.
According to court documents filed in a Florida court last week, CluCoin’s founder — Austin Michael Taylor admitted to regularly transferring funds intended for CluCoin-related projects to his personal crypto wallets and then to online crypto casinos.
Taylor founded CluCoin in the spring of 2021, promoting the project to his “large online following” as a livestreamer to fund charities. Following CluCoin’s subsequent ICO in May, the project’s trading volume and value “decreased sharply,” according to court documents, prompting Taylor to steer CluCoin “away from its original charitable focus.” Throughout 2022, while he was running CluCoin and making promises to investors about its activities, including the purported development of a metaverse-based video game called “Xenia,” his lawyers said Taylor “secretly indulged in gambling addiction.” In total, he funneled $1.14 million in investor funds to online casinos, including Stake.com, his lawyers said.
In January 2023, Taylor publicly admitted to using investor funds for online gambling and voluntarily handed over control of the project to his business partners.
On Aug. 15, he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. As part of the plea agreement, Taylor agreed to forfeit $1.14 million in ill-gotten gains as restitution to the victim.
Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra of the Southern District of Florida on Oct. 31 at 10 a.m. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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