According to Cointelegraph, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has sentenced three key individuals involved in the AirBit Club cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, and Karina Chairez were sentenced on October 3, after pleading guilty to money laundering and other charges in early 2023. Hughes, who allegedly laundered approximately $18 million in AirBit Club fraud proceeds, received an 18-month prison sentence. Millan and Chairez, both senior-level promoters of AirBit Club, were sentenced to five years and one year and one day in prison, respectively.
Additionally, Hughes was sentenced to three years of supervised release, while Millan and Chairez received three years and three months of supervised release, respectively. The AirBit Club scheme, launched in late 2015, was promoted as a multi-level marketing club in the cryptocurrency industry. The defendants provided presentations to trick investors into believing that AirBit Club had guaranteed daily returns from crypto mining and trading. However, $100 million of investors' money went to the pockets of its founders and promoters instead of funding the promoted crypto operations.
U.S. attorney Damian Williams emphasized that Hughes, Millan, and Chairez each played a key role in perpetuating the AirBit Club pyramid scheme. He stated that the sentences send a message that anyone who facilitates cryptocurrency investment schemes will face serious consequences for such crimes. This comes after AirBit Club co-founder Pablo Rodriguez was sentenced to 12 years in prison in late September 2023. Another co-founder, Dos Santos, who has pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and bank fraud conspiracy, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 4, 2023. Santos will be the last defendant to be sentenced out of a total of six defendants behind AirBit Club. Jackie Aguilar, who pled guilty in February 2023, reportedly passed away in May, a few weeks prior to sentencing.
