Founders of Multimillion Dollar Global Crypto Ponzi Scheme ‘Airbit Club’ Plead Guilty – Regulation
The founders and promoters of the multi-million dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Airbit Club have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges. Airbit Club victims were promised “guaranteed daily returns on each membership purchased,” according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
The operators and organizers of the Airbit Club plead guilty
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday that six people have pleaded guilty behind Airbit Club, a crypto Ponzi scheme rumored to be a cryptocurrency mining and trading company.
The six people are the Airbit Club’s co-founders (Pablo Renato Rodriguez and Gutemberg Dos Santos), senior promoters (Karina Chairez, Cecilia Millan, and Jackie Aguilar), and an attorney who laundered the Airbit Club’s fraud proceeds (Scott Hughes). According to DOJ:
As part of their guilty pleas, the defendants were jointly ordered to forfeit their fraudulent earnings from the Airbit Club, including confiscated or withheld assets consisting of US currency, Bitcoin and real estate currently valued at approximately $100 million.
The promoters “falsely promised victims that the Airbit Club would earn proceeds from mining and trading cryptocurrencies and that victims would earn passive, guaranteed daily returns from each membership purchased,” the DOJ said.
The Justice Department stated that as of late 2015, the defendants marketed the Airbit Club as “a multilevel marketing club in the cryptocurrency industry.” They traveled the world to hold “lavish exhibitions and small community presentations” in the US, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe to convince victims to buy Airbit Club memberships in cash. After purchasing memberships, victims gained access to an online portal with false representations of profits Bitcoin mining or trade, although in reality there were no such activities.
The Justice Department described:
Instead, Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Millan, and Aguilar enriched themselves and spent sacrificial funds on cars, jewelry, and luxury homes, and funded more extravagant exhibitions to recruit more victims.
Many victims encountered obstacles back in 2016 when attempting to withdraw funds from Airbit Club’s online portal, the DOJ explained, adding that complaints to a promoter “were met with apologies, delays, and hidden fees in excess of 50% of the amount.” were answered Victim requested withdrawal.” Some victims were unable to withdraw any funds at all.
All six people have pleaded guilty to various charges including conspiracy to wire fraud, money laundering and bank fraud. These charges have potential maximum sentences of 20 years, 20 years and 30 years in prison respectively.
How many years do you think the Airbit Club founders and promoters should go to prison for? Let us know in the comment section below.
photo credit: Shutterstock, Pixabay, WikiCommons
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
js.src=”
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Source: Crypto News Deutsch
