The Florida Masochist: The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Angel Cruz. He gets the award for the following.

A rift has developed between two Kissimmee organizations under investigation for issuing "worthless checks" to Hispanic employees who believed in their plans to launch a new currency.

Thursday evening, the nonprofit JC Consultores Laborales released a statement distancing itself from financial partner The United Cities Corp., which printed checks deemed fraudulent by a federal agency. The nonprofit used those checks to pay its workers.

In the statement, the nonprofit's president, Josefina Calderon, said she was "very concerned" about the lack of payment to several dozen employees for "not only the hours worked but the monthly expenses too."

United Cities' owner, Angel Cruz, denied that his project -- which includes launching a rival to the U.S. dollar -- is having any problems and said it's all a misunderstanding.

Employees of its nonprofit partner were promised salaries for jobs ranging from maintenance worker to human-resources director, and told their debts would be paid off. United Cities also offered them 30-year job contracts, a new car, health insurance without premiums and a house -- all to be paid with the currency Cruz dubbed "The United States Private Dollar."

Calderon said in the statement that she, her organization and employees were "suffering the effects of the promised funds not being deposited" and the banks closing their accounts.

Last week, the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an alert warning banks that United Cities' checks were "valueless instruments" and should not be cashed.

Calderon asked Cruz to pay what he owes to about 60 employees with the Kissimmee nonprofit and to an undisclosed number of workers at 32 other companies affiliated with The United Cities.

Cruz, who said he is 47 and a Cuban immigrant raised in the U.S., estimates there are about $300 million worth of outstanding payments to affiliated members in Orlando, Miami and other parts of the U.S. who are owed for their work.

They will get paid, Cruz said, with his "private dollars," and the U.S. banking system and government will have to accept them "because what [federal officials] have done is illegal."

He said the Federal Reserve System is a moneymaking monopoly and called it "Satan's banking system," which is why he labels his "private dollars" with the motto "In Jehovah We Trust" to reflect "the name of the true God."