AirBit Traders Plead Guilty to $100 Million Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that a total of six executives of the AirBit Club cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme have pleaded guilty to their roles in a series of internationally coordinated fraud and money laundering charges.

Over a five-year period, the AirBit Club operators had reportedly raised approximately $100 million. This includes co-founders Pablo Renato Rodríguez and Gutemberg Dos Santos, their attorney Scott Hughes, and AirBit promoters Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar, who have pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. charges

another ponzi

in a statementUS Attorney Damian Williams said the six executives took advantage of the growing hype around the asset class to trick unsuspecting victims around the world out of millions of dollars with false promises that their money was being invested in trading and mining. of cryptocurrencies.

“Instead of trading or mining cryptocurrency on behalf of investors, the defendants built a Ponzi scheme and took the victims’ money to line their own pockets. These guilty pleas send a clear message that we are going after all those who seek to exploit cryptocurrency to commit fraud.”

According to law enforcement findings, Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Hughes, Chairez, and Millan solicited victims to purchase memberships for cash using third-party cryptocurrency brokers. The illicit proceeds from the AirBit Club Scheme were then laundered through various domestic and foreign bank accounts, including a solicitors’ trust account run by Hughes.

With this account, the lawyer allocated funds to the personal expenses of the co-founders and promoters, as well as himself. These funds were also used for promotional events and sponsorships designed to further promote the AirBit Club program.

Expenses in luxurious exhibitions, luxury houses

All of the defendants, who were first charged in August 2020, traveled throughout the United States and Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe, staging “luxurious” exhibits and small community performances aimed at convincing victims to buy memberships. by AirBit Club.

Prosecutors further claimed that the victims were able to view the accumulated “earnings” on their online Portal. However, no actual Bitcoin mining or trading on behalf of the victims took place. Instead, the operators of the scam project “got rich” and spent the money on cars, jewelry and luxury homes, and financed more extravagant displays to amass more victims.