Juan Tacuri, one of the main organizers of the Forcount cryptocurrency scheme, which collected about $8.4 million from Spanish-speaking investors around the world, pleaded guilty to fraud.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said 46-year-old Florida resident Juan Tacuri pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. The man faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Takuri agreed to return $4 million to his victims, as well as real estate purchased with investor funds.

Takuri and other Forcount promoters guaranteed investors that their investment would double within six months. Prosecutors allege Takuri traveled around the United States staging lavish exhibitions to recruit new investors, luring them with promises of “financial freedom.” It later turned out that Forcount had never been involved in mining or crypto trading. Takuri and his partners used money from new investors to pay off early investors, and also squandered the money they raised on real estate and a luxurious lifestyle.

In 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Thakuri and three other participants in the scheme with violating securities laws. That same year, the US Department of Justice charged several citizens with running the IcomTech and Forcount crypto scams, known as Weltsys, and money laundering. Thakuri’s trial is scheduled for September 24 in New York. The verdict must be handed down by District Judge Analisa Torres, who is overseeing the SEC’s lawsuit against the crypto company Ripple.

Last month, the promoter of another cryptocurrency pyramid, BitConnect, admitted to fraud of $2.4 billion. In May, a Texas district court found a crypto influencer who promoted Sparkster guilty of violating securities laws for distributing SPRK tokens.