Hudson County Married Couple Admit To $500K Ponzi Scheme

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A Hudson County couple have admitted to operating a Ponzi scheme, conning about two dozen investors out of more than $500,000, prosecutors announced Monday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Alcibiades Cifuentes, 36, and his wife, Jennifer Wee Cifuentes, 38, formerly of West New York, defrauded the investors by making “extraordinary guarantees” about investment returns. They then used the money for extravagant purchases and to pay off other victims.

Alcibiades Cifuentes and Jennifer Wee Cifuentes each pleaded guilty to all six counts with which they were charged by indictment in May 2017: four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud, and one count of theft by a commodity pool operator.

Jennifer Wee Cifuentes pleaded guilty on Nov. 18 in Newark federal court. Alcibiades Cifuentes pleaded guilty on Nov. 8.

According to court documents and statements, the couple engaged in an investment fraud scheme from 2012 through March 2015. They fraudulently induced victims to invest in the foreign currency and commodity markets through Cifuentes Fund Management, their hedge fund that purportedly invested in foreign currencies, prosecutors said.

Instead, they immediately spent those investment funds on personal items, such as an Audi R8 and jewelry. The couple would then pay back a portion of the victims’ money with money received from newly duped victims, prosecutors said.

In all, the couple defrauded about 25 victims of more than $500,000, prosecutors stated.

Each count of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy to which the defendants pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss caused by the scheme. The count of commodities theft to which the defendants pleaded guilty carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, or twice the gross gain or loss, prosecutors said.

Sentencing for Alcibiades Cifuentes is scheduled for Feb. 27. Sentencing for Jennifer Wee Cifuentes is scheduled for Feb. 28.

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