A promoter of the cryptocurrency scheme Forcount has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Antonia Perez Hernandez admitted to her role in the operation, which scammed investors out of approximately $8.4 million by promising false returns.
Hernandez is one of several individuals sentenced in connection to this case. In October 2024, Juan Tacuri, the lead promoter of Forcount, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Another member of the operation, Nestor Nuñez, received a four-year sentence in November 2024 after pleading guilty.
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The judgment was delivered on January 27 at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) by Judge Analisa Torres. Hernandez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of the scheme, which ran from 2017 to 2021.
During the hearing, Judge Torres highlighted Hernandez’s involvement, noting, “Ms. Hernandez sold valueless coins”. The court also suggested there was evidence she had engaged in similar activities beyond this case.
The Forcount scheme revolved around misleading claims that investments would double within six months, thanks to profits from cryptocurrency trading and mining.
However, investigators revealed that no actual trading or mining took place. Instead, the funds from new investors were used to pay earlier participants, following the classic structure of a Ponzi scheme.
Meanwhile, a pastor from Washington recently faced fraud charges over a $6 million crypto scheme. What was the scheme about? Read the full story.
