(Double) Masterminds of Crypto Mining Scam AirBit Club Charged with Money Laundering and Fraud
US authorities have filed charges against the chief operators of AirBit Club, a purported cryptocurrency mining and trading company, for coordinating an international money laundering and fraud ring that defrauded investors.
Modern-day scam
Audrey Straus, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, unsealed an indictment charging Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Gutemberg Dos Santos, Cecilia Millan, Scott Hughes, and Jackie Aguilar as the ring leaders of the crypto scam.
He noted:
“As alleged, the defendants put a modern-day spin on an age-old investment scam, promising extraordinary rates of guaranteed return on phantom investments in cryptocurrencies. Thanks to HSI, the defendants are in custody and facing serious criminal charges.”
AirBit Club was founded in late 2015 by Dos Santos and Rodriguez. It lured victims that they could earn daily returns by investing in the cryptocurrency mining and trading opportunity offered by the company.
It is alleged that the masterminds established well-coordinated recruitment events and lavish marketing pitches to entice culprits into the scam. Later on, they spent the proceeds to purchase homes, jewelry, and luxury cars.
Crypto mining has emerged to be a sector targeted by modern-day scammers. For instance, in July, a Romanian programmer confessed to orchestrating another cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme dubbed BitClub Network, where victims lost $722 million.
As reported by Blockchain.news, Chinese authorities arrested 27 primary criminal suspects involved in the Plus Token Bitcoin scam valued at $5.7 billion on July 31.
Lavish expos
It has been the norm for many cryptocurrency scams to host opulent recruitment drives, and AirBit Club was not an exemption. Reportedly, the ringleaders travelled across the globe to places like Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States to convince victims to buy a membership.
This crypto scam was well choreographed to the extent that investors were tricked into seeing Bitcoin profits accumulating on their online portal upon purchasing a membership with cash. However, this was not the case, as those representations were fake.