Alcibiades Cifuentes, Jennifer Wee Cifuentes, Ponzi Scheme, New Jersey 2023

Newark, NJ – A husband and wife duo has been charged with a Ponzi scheme that defrauded approximately 20 investors out of $500,000.

Alcibiades Cifuentes, 34, and his wife Jennifer Wee Cifuentes, 36, both of West New York, New Jersey, were indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly engaging in an investment fraud scheme from 2012 through March 2015.

According to the indictment, the couple fraudulently 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.

However, the couple would then almost immediately spend those investment funds on personal items, such as an Audi R8 and jewelry. They allegedly used the money to pay back a portion of the victims’ money with money received from newly duped victims.

The charges against Alcibiades and Jennifer Wee Cifuentes include four counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud, and one count of stealing funds intended for investment in commodities.

Each count of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. The count of commodities theft carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.

The arraignment for the couple is pending.

The case was investigated by inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Services under the direction of Inspector in Charge James V. Buthorn, and criminal investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, for the investigation. The N.J. Bureau of Securities in the State Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Affairs, under the direction of Attorney General Christopher Porrino and Bureau Chief Christopher W. Gerold, as well as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement, under the direction of Director James M. McDonald, also played a role in the investigation.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David W. Feder of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Economic Crimes Unit.

Defense counsel for Alcibiades Cifuentes is Joseph Rotella Esq., while Jennifer Wee Cifuentes is represented by Aidan O’Connor Esq.

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