Six executives of AirBit Club, a fake cryptocurrency mining and trading business, have confessed to participating in a crypto Ponzi scheme that generated around $100 million in five years.
The executives, including co-founder Pablo Renato Rodriguez, have been charged with several fraud and money laundering offences. Senior AirBit Club promoters Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar pled guilty before Judge Daniels on different dates in January and February 2023, while co-founder Gutemberg Dos Santos and attorney Scott Hughes pled guilty on October 21, 2021, and March 2, 2023, respectively.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) accused AirBit Club Operators of fraudulent activities related to cryptocurrency mining and trading from 2015 to 2020. The company’s executives and promoters allegedly deceived innocent investors by promoting the idea that purchasing a membership would secure profits and passive income.
According to the DOJ, Rodriguez and the remaining five defendants travelled across the United States and various regions in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, conducting extravagant exhibitions and small community events in an effort to convince potential victims to purchase AirBit Club memberships.
The victims saw profits on their online portal, but no actual mining or selling occurred. Instead, the defendants increased their personal wealth and funded more expensive expos to lure in fresh victims.
The AirBit Club operators have been ordered to forfeit the estimated $100 million in fraudulent gains, including fiat currency, real estate, and Bitcoin.
According to Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York: “the guilty pleas send a clear message that the Department of Justice is coming after all those who seek to exploit cryptocurrency to commit fraud.“
Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Hughes, Millan, and Aguilar were initially charged on August 18, 2020, for their participation in an international money-laundering and fraud ring that involved defrauding people by having them invest in AirBit Club. Whereas Karina Chairez was charged on October 21, 2020 for her involvement in the scheme.
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