A former Hudson County couple was sentenced Wednesday for operating a Ponzi scheme.
They defrauded approximately 30 investors by making extraordinary guarantees about investment returns and then used the money for extravagant purchases and to pay off other victims, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Federal officials, ay Jennifer Wee Cifuentes, 40, and her husband, Alcibiades Cifuentes, 39, were each sentenced to nearly six years in prison (71 months).
Officials say Alcibiades Cifuentes pleaded guilty on Nov. 8, 2019, and Jennifer Wee Cifuentes pleaded guilty on Nov. 18, 2019, both before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in Newark federal court, to all six counts of an indictment charging each of them with four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud, and one count of stealing funds intended for investment in commodities.
Judge Salas imposed the sentences today in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Jennifer Wee and Alicbiades Cifuentes engaged in an investment fraud scheme from 2012 through March 2015. They induced victims to invest in the foreign currency and commodity markets through Cifuentes Fund Management (CFM), their hedge fund that purportedly invested in foreign currencies.
They almost immediately spent those investment funds on personal items such as an Audi R8 automobile and jewelry.
The couple would then pay back a portion of the victims’ money with money from newly duped victims.
The couple defrauded approximately 30 victims of more than $400,000.
In addition to the prison terms, Judge Salas sentenced each of the defendants to three years of supervised release and ordered them to pay $434,914 in restitution and forfeiture of $218,957.