{"id":10798,"date":"2023-03-09T05:22:12","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T05:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=10798"},"modified":"2023-03-09T05:22:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T05:22:13","slug":"airbit-club-execs-face-decades-in-prison-after-pleading-guilty-to-100m-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=10798","title":{"rendered":"AirBit Club execs face decades in prison after pleading guilty to $100M fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script>\n<p>Six people involved in a cryptocurrency \u201cPonzi scheme\u201d that raked in about $100 million over five years have pled guilty to a series of fraud and money laundering charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years of prison.<\/p>\n<p>One of the founders of \u201cAirBit Club,\u201d Pablo Renato Rodriguez, was the latest to plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges on Mar. 8.<\/p>\n<p>According to a Mar. 8 statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), AirBit Club was a fake cryptocurrency mining and trading company operating between 2015 to 2020, where executives and promoters induced victim investors into believing that they\u2019d make guaranteed passive income and profits on any membership purchased. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Operators and attorney of global multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme \u201cAirBit Club\u201d plead guiltyhttps:\/\/t.co\/MT3mM9aqPV<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) March 8, 2023<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, the perpetrators traveled throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe to market AirBit at \u201clavish expos\u201d to convince investors to purchase AirBit Club memberships. <\/p>\n<p>Victims saw \u201cprofits\u201d accumulate on the AirBit Club online portal, but no actual mining or trading was ever carried out. One victim trying to withdraw was asked to \u201cbring new blood\u201d into the AirBit Club scheme in order to withdraw her funds. <\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the operators used funds from victims to purchase luxurious cars, houses and jewerly. Some of the proceeds were used to finance more expos to recruit more victims too: <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe defendants took advantage of the growing hype around cryptocurrency to con unsuspecting victims around the world out of millions of dollars with false promises that their money was being invested in cryptocurrency trading and mining.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Instead of doing any cryptocurrency trading or mining on behalf of investors, the defendants built a Ponzi scheme and took the victims\u2019 money to line their own pockets,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>The representatives were first officially charged Aug. 18, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since then, senior promoters Cecilia Millan, Jackie Aguilar and Karina Chairez each pled guilty to a series of wire fraud conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy charges on Jan. 31, Feb. 8 and Feb. 22, while another founder, Gutenberg Dos Santos pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges on Oct. 21, 2021, according to the Mar. 8 statement.<\/p>\n<p>These guilty pleas send a clear message that we are coming after all of those who seek to exploit cryptocurrency to commit fraud,\u201d Williams added.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u2018Far too easy\u2019 \u2014 Crypto researcher\u2019s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hours<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The operators have been ordered to forfeit their fraudulent proceeds of AirBit Club, which include fiat currency, real estate and Bitcoin (BTC), collectively valued at about $100 million. <\/p>\n<p>Cointelegraph found there are still videos of the AirBit Club representatives marketing the membership scheme on YouTube. <\/p>\n<p>The scheme often used the hashtag \u201c#AirBitBillionaireClub\u201d and shared several fake success stories of investors to try to lure in more victims. <\/p>\n<p>California-licensed Attorney Scott Hughes, an attorney accused of laundering proceeds of the scheme, also pled guilty to money laundering charges on Mar. 2. <\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez, Millan, Aguilar, Chairez and Hughes will be sentenced on different dates between June and August this year.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Magazine: <\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u2018Account abstraction\u2019 supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/airbit-club-execs-face-decades-in-prison-after-pleading-guilty-to-100m-fraud\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six people involved in a cryptocurrency \u201cPonzi scheme\u201d that raked in about $100 million over five years have pled guilty to a series of fraud and money laundering charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years of prison. One of the founders of \u201cAirBit Club,\u201d Pablo Renato Rodriguez, was the latest to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitcoin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10800,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10798\/revisions\/10800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}