AirBit Club execs face decades in prison after pleading guilty to $100M fraud

cointelegraph.com:

Six people involved in a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme” 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 “AirBit Club,” Pablo Renato Rodriguez, was the latest to plead guilty to wire fraud conspiracy charges on Mar. 8.

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’d make guaranteed passive income and profits on any membership purchased.

Operators and attorney of global multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme “AirBit Club” plead guiltyhttps://t.co/MT3mM9aqPV

According to the DOJ, the perpetrators traveled throughout the United States, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe to market AirBit at “lavish expos” to convince investors to purchase AirBit Club memberships.

Victims saw “profits” 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 “bring new blood” into the AirBit Club scheme in order to withdraw her funds.

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:

"Instead of doing any cryptocurrency trading or mining on behalf of investors, the defendants built a Ponzi scheme and took the victims’ money to line their own pockets," he added.

The representatives were first officially charged Aug. 18, 2020. 

Since then,