MIAMI — A 64-year-old man who federal investigators said defrauded more than 150 victims -- including elderly Catholic priests in Venezuela and members of his own family -- was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra sentenced Andrew Hamilton Jacobus, a former financial adviser, on Thursday at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Downtown Miami.
“Greed was Jacobus’s greatest tool — paired with a computer and a phone, it fueled a scheme that stole millions and shattered lives,” Ron Loecker, the special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Florida field office, said in a statement.
According to federal prosecutors, Jacobus, of Fort Lauderdale, the former principal of Miami-based Kronus Financial and Coral Gables-based Finser International, ran a classic Ponzi scheme.
“This was a $94 million international fraud built on lies and broken trust,” Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement.
According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, Jacobus became “the sole owner” of a currency exchange provider in 2001 in Venezuela, and established Finser as an SEC-registered investment adviser in 2010 and Kronus as a holding company in 2017.
Investigators reported Jacobus stopped making payments to investors in 2021 and 2022. Jacobus pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering charges on Nov. 14.
Federal prosecutors reported that more than 20 victims were in court for the sentencing hearing on Thursday, and about 80 witnessed it remotely.
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