Fort Lauderdale Advisor Pleads Guilty in $94 Million Ponzi Scheme Targeting Venezuelan Investors

Sentencing is scheduled for February following his wire-fraud, money-laundering plea.

Overview

Andrew Hamilton Jacobus, 64, admitted to running the scheme from 2004 to 2023 using Kronus Financial Corporation and Finser International Corporation.
He enticed clients with purported secure, high-yield investments, then forged account statements and diverted funds to personal luxury spending and to repay earlier investors.
Victims were mainly Venezuelan nationals, including a nonprofit supporting Catholic priests that invested more than $4 million and was later told it was owed over $6 million, according to a factual proffer.
He faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each count, with the sentence to be determined by a judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
IRS Criminal Investigation is leading the probe, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida is prosecuting, and asset forfeiture is being pursued in case 25-cr-20309.