CluCoin’s founder has pleaded guilty to stealing over $1m in investor money to fund his gambling addiction. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

The founder of CluCoin has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1m from investors and using the money to feed his addiction to online gambling. Austin Michael Taylor admitted to embezzling funds from Spring 2021 until early last year, directing the money to his personal wallets on numerous occasions and proceeding to lose it playing at online casinos.

will also have to provide $1.14m in restitution to the investors

He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and is facing up to 20 years in prison, with the sentencing taking place on October 31 in the Southern District of Florida. The Miami resident will also have to provide $1.14m in restitution to the investors impacted by his actions.

CluCoin was a company that originally aimed to offer a more efficient way to send donations to charities before Taylor told investors about a plan to pivot to create a metaverse game. He eventually held his hands up in January 2023 to embezzling money and gave the CluCoin reins to associates.

The 40-year-old regularly streamed on Twitch under the name ‘DNPthree’ and leveraged his social media presence to promote the initial coin offering (ICO) of CluCoin’s ‘CLU’ token in May 2021.