Six people involved in a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme” that earned about $100 million over five years have pleaded guilty to a series of fraud and money laundering charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years in prison.
One of the founders of “AirBit Club,” Pablo Renato Rodriguez, is the latest to plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges on March 8.
According to a March 8 statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), AirBit Club is a fake cryptocurrency mining and trading company that operated between 2015 and 2020, where its executives and promoters led victim investors to believe that they would create guaranteed passives. income and profit in any member purchased.
Operator and lawyer of global multi-million dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme “AirBit Club” pleads guiltyhttps://t.co/MT3mM9aqPV
– SDNY US Attorney (@SDNYnews) March 8, 2023
According to the DOJ, the perpetrators traveled throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe to market AirBit in “luxurious expos” to convince investors to buy AirBit Club memberships.
Victims see “profits” accumulating on the AirBit Club online portal, but no actual mining or trading takes place. One victim who tried to withdraw was asked to “bring new blood” to the AirBit Club scheme to withdraw funds.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the operators used funds from victims to buy luxury cars, homes and jewelry. Some of the proceeds are used to fund more expos to recruit more victims:
“The defendants took advantage of the growing hype around cryptocurrency to defraud unsuspecting victims around the world of millions of dollars by falsely promising that the money would be invested in cryptocurrency trading and mining.”
“Instead of doing any cryptocurrency trading or mining on behalf of investors, the accused built a Ponzi scheme and took the victim’s money to line his own pockets,” he added.
The representative was first formally charged on August 18, 2020.
Since, senior promoters Cecilia Millan, Jackie Aguilar and Karina Chairez each pleaded guilty to a series of wire fraud conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges on January 31, February 8 and February 22, when they founded another, Gutenberg. Dos Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges on Oct. 21, 2021, according to a March 8 statement.
This false request sends a clear message that we are coming after all those who seek to exploit cryptocurrency to commit fraud,” added Williams.
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The operator has been ordered to remove the proceeds of fraud from AirBit Club, which includes fiat currency, real estate and Bitcoin (BTC), with a value of approximately $ 100 million.
Cointelegraph found that there is still a video of a representative of the AirBit Club marketing the membership scheme on YouTube.
These schemes often use the hashtag “#AirBitBillionaireClub” and share some fake success stories from investors to try to attract more victims.
California-licensed Attorney Scott Hughes, a lawyer accused of laundering proceeds of the scheme, also pleaded guilty to money laundering charges on March 2.
Rodriguez, Millan, Aguilar, Chairez and Hughes will be sentenced on different dates between June and August this year.
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