CluCoin Founder Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud in $1.1 Million Scam

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Austin Michael Taylor, the founder of CluCoin, a cryptocurrency project marketed for its charitable focus, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in connection with a $1.1 million scam.

Taylor, who managed the operations of CluCoin through his company CLU LLC, admitted to misappropriating investor funds and using them to fuel his gambling addiction.

Austin Michael Taylor, a 40-year-old from Maryland, leveraged his significant social media following to promote CluCoin, a digital token he created under the guise of a charitable initiative.

CluCoin’s initial coin offering (ICO), launched in May 2021, attracted substantial interest from investors enticed by the promise of contributing to a project with a philanthropic mission.

Taylor authored a “white paper” for CluCoin, a common practice in the crypto space. The paper detailed the project’s goals and mechanisms and successfully raised significant funds during the ICO.

However, instead of channeling these funds into the development of CluCoin or its associated projects, Taylor diverted approximately $1.14 million of investor money to his personal account.

Court documents reveal that between May and December 2022, Taylor used these misappropriated funds to engage in online gambling, primarily at crypto casinos such as Stake.com, where he eventually lost the entire sum.

Taylor’s fraudulent activities were not immediately apparent to CluCoin investors. In an attempt to maintain interest in the project, Taylor organized and hosted “NFTCon: Into the Metaverse,” an event held in Miami in April 2022.