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© Reuters Founders and partners of crypto company AirBit Club admit scam in the US.
New York, March 8 (.).- The founders and partners of the crypto company AirBit Club, six people in total, pleaded guilty to creating a fraud and money laundering pyramid scheme to deceive investors in the United States, reported this Wednesday the Department of Justice.
The defendants, who face maximum sentences of several decades in prison, must return the money they pocketed thanks to the crypto company, some 100 million dollars in US currency, and real estate, according to a statement.
AirBit Club, an alleged cryptocurrency mining and trading company, was created in 2015 by Pablo Renato Rodriguez, an American, and Gutemberg Dos Santos, a Panamanian, “under the false promise of giving guaranteed profits in exchange for cash investments in club memberships “.
The authorities explained that the founders and their three promoters, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez and Jackie Aguilar, Americans, traveled throughout the US, Latin America, Asia and Europe, displaying lavish events to convince the public to join the “club of multi-level marketing” and get passive income.
But when the victims accessed the AirBit Club portal, they saw “false” profits since the company was not mining (manufacturing) or trading bitcoin, as it was supposed, but its managers were spending client money on “cars , jewelry, luxury homes” and in financing new events.
Beginning in 2016, victims attempted to withdraw their money and were met with “excuses, delays, and hidden fees amounting to more than 50%” of the amount, and in at least one case, in 2020, the victim lost their entire investment by finding the account closed “due to the crisis” of the covid-19, indicates the note.
The sixth defendant, Scott Hughes, an American, is a lawyer who represented the founders of AirBit Club in another pyramid scheme and helped them remove negative information from both cases on the internet, in addition to making money laundering tools available to them. .
All of the defendants have pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy: to commit wire fraud, money laundering and bank fraud, each with maximum sentences of between 20 and 30 years, and will receive their sentences in July and August.
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