Six people involved in a cryptocurrency "Ponzi scheme" that raised around $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 โAirBit Club,โ Pablo Renato Rodrรญguez, was the latest to plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges on March 8.
According According to a March 8 statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), AirBit Club was a bogus cryptocurrency mining and trading company that operated between 2015 and 2020, where executives and promoters led victim investors to believe that they would earn guaranteed passive income and profit on any membership purchased.
Operators And Lawyer Of Billionaire Global Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme โAirBit Clubโ Plead Guiltyhttps://t.co/MT3mM9aqPV
โ US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) March 8, 2023
According to the Department of Justice, the perpetrators traveled throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe to market AirBit at "lavish exhibitions" to convince investors to buy AirBit Club memberships.
Victims saw โprofitsโ accumulate on the AirBit Club online portal, but no actual mining or trading ever took place. A victim who was trying to withdraw was asked to "bring new blood" to the AirBit Club scheme in order to defund her.
US Attorney Damian Williams said the operators used funds from victims to buy fancy cars, houses and jewelry. Some of the proceeds were used to fund more exposures to recruit more victims as well:
"The defendants took advantage of the growing publicity around cryptocurrencies to scam unsuspecting victims around the world out of millions of dollars with false promises that their money was being invested in cryptocurrency mining and trading."
"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," it added.
The representatives were for the first time officially loaded August 18, 2020.
Lead promoters Cecilia Millan, Jackie Aguilar, and Karina Chairez have since pleaded guilty to a series of counts of wire fraud conspiracy, bank fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy on January 31, February 8, and February 22. February, while another founder, Gutenberg Dos Santos, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges on October 21, 2021, according to the March 8 statement.
These guilty pleas send a clear message that we are pursuing all those who seek to exploit cryptocurrency to commit fraud,โ Williams added.
Related: 'Too Easy': Crypto Researcher's Fake Ponzi Raises $100K in Hours
Traders have been ordered to forfeit their fraudulent AirBit Club profits, which include fiat currency, real estate, and Bitcoin. (BTC), collectively valued at about $100 million.
Cointelegraph found that there are still videos of AirBit Club representatives marketing the membership scheme on YouTube.
The scheme often used the hashtag "#AirBitBillionaireClub" and shared various fake investor success stories to try to lure more victims.
California licensed attorney Scott Hughes, a lawyer accused of money laundering scheme, he also pleaded guilty to money laundering charges on March 2.
Rodrรญguez, Millรกn, Aguilar, Chairez and Hughes will be sentenced on different dates between June and August of this year.
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