MIAMI \u2013 A Fort Lauderdale man pleaded guilty on Nov. 14 to charges arising from a years-long scheme that defrauded international investors\u2014primarily Venezuelan nationals\u2014of more than $94 million.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Andrew Hamilton Jacobus, 64, falsely portrayed himself as a seasoned financial advisor managing legitimate investment portfolios, while misappropriating investor funds for personal use and to pay returns to earlier investors in classic Ponzi-scheme fashion.<\/p>\n
Between 2004 and 2023, Jacobus solicited funds through entities under his control, including Kronus Financial Corporation and Finser International Corporation, promising access to secure\u00a0investment products and high-yield returns. In reality, Jacobus forged account statements, falsified documentation, and diverted client funds to luxury personal expenditures and Ponzi payments.<\/p>\n
Jacobus pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison for each count. A federal district court judge will determine a sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Ronald A. Loecker of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Florida Field Office, made the announcement.<\/p>\n
IRS-CI is investigating the case.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert F. Moore is prosecuting. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitch Hyman is handling asset forfeiture.<\/p>\n
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at\u00a0www.flsd.uscourts.gov<\/a>\u00a0or at\u00a0http:\/\/pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov<\/a>, under case number \u00a025-cr-20309.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2013 A Fort Lauderdale man pleaded guilty on Nov. 14 to charges arising from a years-long scheme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-54821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}