CluCoin and Goobers NFTs founders sentenced to 27 months in prison and fined $1.14 million for telecom fraud

Odaily Planet Daily News: CluCoin founder Austin Michael Taylor (alias DPN3) has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for telecommunications fraud. He will also pay compensation and confiscate assets totaling $1.14 million. In August 2024, Taylor pleaded guilty to a telecommunications fraud charge involving fraudulent transfers. According to court documents, starting from 2022, Taylor will regularly use funds allocated to CluCoin related activities to fund his increasingly serious addiction to online gambling. After the CLU token was launched on BNB Chain in 2021, Taylor shifted the focus of CluCoin to other projects, including minting the "Goobers" series of NFTs, a P2E web3 game called Gridlock, and the "Xenia" metaverse platform. In early 2023, Taylor admitted to CLU's investors that he had lost all their funds in gambling. In addition, Taylor requested the court to exempt him from imprisonment, partly because he is a retired soldier. He initially faced a sentence of 20 years, which is the maximum sentence for telecommunications fraud.