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A South Florida man pleads guilty to New York-based crypto Ponzi scheme
Federal prosecutors said Juan Tacuri of Greenacres promoted a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme involving Forcount, targeting Spanish-speaking investors.
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Promising aspiring investors guaranteed daily returns and doubling of their investments within six months, Juan Tacuri became a major promoter of a New York-based cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
In exchange, the 46-year-old Palm Beach County man reaped millions of dollars, spending his ill-gotten gains lavishly on luxury goods and real estate, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Tacuri’s legal battle ended this month with him pleading guilty to one charge. The Greenacres resident will be sentenced in September and faces up to 20 years in prison.
Forcount targeted Spanish-speaking investors for the Ponzi scheme, prosecutors say
Cryptocurrency is an unregulated, digital-only currency that is not backed by a bank or government and has no physical presence in the real world.
In court documents, prosecutors described Tacuri as one of the most successful promoters of a Ponzi scheme known as Forcount, which primarily targeted Spanish-speaking populations.
Forcount, later known as Weltsys, was a purported cryptocurrency mining and trading company that promised to earn its investors profits in exchange for purchasing cryptocurrency-related investment products.
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Prosecutor: Forcount deceived investors about involvement in cryptocurrency mining
Forcount’s founders and promoters falsely promised investors that profits from the company’s trading and mining operations would result in guaranteed daily investment returns and a doubling of investments within six months, prosecutors said.
In reality, the company was not involved in cryptocurrency mining and instead used the investments to pay other victims of the system, to further promote the system, and to enrich its founder and promoters.
Victims of the Ponzi scheme could reportedly see the supposed profits posted on an online portal, but were unable to withdraw any of them and eventually lost all their money. Prosecutors said the complaints date back to April 2018, and in 2021 Tacuri and others stopped promoting the scheme and responding to some investor complaints.
Tacuri’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24 by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York, which includes New York City and nearby counties.
As part of his plea, Tacuri agreed to forfeit $4 million in investor funds and some properties purchased using that money.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help us support our work: Sign up today.