{"id":18543,"date":"2023-03-10T08:31:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T08:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/founders-of-multimillion-dollar-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-airbit-club-plead-guilty-regulation-bitcoin-news\/"},"modified":"2023-03-10T08:31:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T08:31:50","slug":"founders-of-multimillion-dollar-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-airbit-club-plead-guilty-regulation-bitcoin-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/founders-of-multimillion-dollar-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-airbit-club-plead-guilty-regulation-bitcoin-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Founders of Multimillion-Dollar Global Crypto Ponzi Scheme &#8216;Airbit Club&#8217; Plead Guilty \u2013 Regulation Bitcoin News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News )<\/b><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<header class=\"article__header\">\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"featured_image_container\">\n\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>The founders and promoters of multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Airbit Club have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges. Airbit Club victims were promised \u201cguaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased,\u201d the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detailed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Airbit Club\u2019s Operators and Promoters Plead Guilty<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that six people behind Airbit Club, a crypto Ponzi scheme that purported to be a cryptocurrency mining and trading company, have pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n<p>The six individuals are Airbit Club co-founders (Pablo Renato Rodriguez and Gutemberg Dos Santos), senior promoters (Karina Chairez, Cecilia Millan, and Jackie Aguilar), and an attorney who laundered Airbit Club\u2019s fraud proceeds (Scott Hughes). According to the DOJ:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As part of their guilty pleas, the defendants collectively have been ordered to forfeit their fraudulent proceeds of Airbit Club, which include seized or restrained assets consisting of U.S. currency, bitcoin, and real estate currently valued at approximately $100 million.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The promoters \u201cfalsely promised victims that Airbit Club earned returns on cryptocurrency mining and trading and that victims would earn passive, guaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased,\u201d the DOJ detailed.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Justice explained that beginning in late 2015, the defendants marketed Airbit Club as \u201ca multilevel marketing club in the cryptocurrency industry.\u201d They traveled worldwide to host \u201clavish expos and small community presentations\u201d across the U.S., Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe to convince victims to buy Airbit Club memberships in cash. After purchasing memberships, victims were given access to an online portal with false representations of profits from bitcoin mining or trading, when in reality there was no such activity.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department described:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Instead, Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Millan, and Aguilar enriched themselves and spent victim money on cars, jewelry, and luxury homes, and financed more extravagant expos to recruit more victims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Many victims encountered obstacles when attempting to withdraw money from the Airbit Club Online Portal as early as 2016, the DOJ stated, adding that complaints made to a promoter \u201cwere met with excuses, delays, and hidden fees amounting to more than 50% of the Victim\u2019s requested withdrawal.\u201d Some victims were unable to withdraw any funds at all.<\/p>\n<p>All six individuals have pleaded guilty to various charges, including wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and bank fraud conspiracy. These charges have a maximum potential sentence of 20 years, 20 years, and 30 years in prison, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>How many years do you think the Airbit Club founders and promoters should go to prison for? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"article__body__author\">\n<div class=\"article__body__author__avatar\">\n<img src=\"https:\/\/static.news.bitcoin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Kevin-200x200-closeup-150x150.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.news.bitcoin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Kevin-200x200-closeup-150x150.png 1x, https:\/\/static.news.bitcoin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Kevin-200x200-closeup.png 2x\" class=\"avatar avatar-150 photo\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article__body__author__info\">\n<h6 class=\"article__body__author__info__name\">\nKevin Helms <\/h6>\n<p class=\"article__body__author__info__about\">\nA student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.<br \/><span class=\"td-social-icon-wrap\"><br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/founders-of-multimillion-dollar-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-airbit-club-plead-guilty\/mailto:kevin@bitcoin.com\" title=\"Mail\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<i class=\"td-icon-font td-icon-mail-1\"\/><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"images_credits\"><em><b>Image Credits<\/b>: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"disclaimer\">\n<p><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong>: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoin.com\">Bitcoin.com<\/a> does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bottom_article_widgets\">\n<aside id=\"bn_widget_spacing-18\" class=\"td_block_template_1 widget widget_bn_widget_spacing\"\/>\n<aside id=\"custom_html-21\" class=\"widget_text td_block_template_1 widget widget_custom_html\">\n<h4 class=\"block-title\"><span>More Popular News<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/aside>\n<aside id=\"bn_widget_spacing-19\" class=\"td_block_template_1 widget widget_bn_widget_spacing\"\/>\n<aside id=\"custom_html-46\" class=\"widget_text td_block_template_1 widget widget_custom_html\"\/>\n<aside id=\"bn_widget_spacing-20\" class=\"td_block_template_1 widget widget_bn_widget_spacing\"\/>\n<aside id=\"custom_html-30\" class=\"widget_text td_block_template_1 widget widget_custom_html\">\n<h4 class=\"block-title\"><span>In Case You Missed It<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n        if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n        js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n        js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2\";\n        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/founders-of-multimillion-dollar-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-airbit-club-plead-guilty\/\">Source link <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Originally posted on : Bitcoin News ) The founders and promoters of multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Airbit Club have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges. Airbit Club victims were promised \u201cguaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased,\u201d the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detailed. Airbit Club\u2019s Operators and Promoters Plead Guilty The U.S. Department of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":18544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18543"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowdfundjunction.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}