The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged another perpetrator of the massive, AirBit Club, who is said to be a high-level promoter of the multi-level marketing scheme.
Announced on Tuesday, Karina Chairez was indicted because of her role in promoting the scheme as an unregistered broker. The commission alleged that she gathered investors for the fraudulent scheme utilizing social media platforms and did in-person meetings.
The lawsuit against her alleged that she raised large sums of money for the shady investment scheme, without mentioning the exact amount. She positioned herself at the top of the pyramid of investment fraud and received heavy compensations from the sale of AirBit securities.
The regulator is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement and prejudgment interest, along with civil penalties from Chairez.
A Scheme by a Serial Ponzi Scammers
AirBit Club solicited investors to subscribe to their packages on the promise of returns paid for up to three hundred days. The money invested was allegedly used to pay for cryptocurrency mining equipment/software and its Affiliates .
In its business model, a user signs for an AirBit Club account and buys a subscription or membership plan in cash. Each package has a different cycle, volume and estimated profit.
Similar to any classic investment fraud, the initial investors doubled their money. However, the scheme is fraudulent even at a first glance, given the increasing Bitcoin mining difficulty.
Promoters of the scheme targeted mostly the Latinx and Spanish-speaking communities, luring them into the fraudulent investment with extremely high returns.
The US authorities already had their radar on this fraudulent scheme for a long time. Earlier this year, the two founders of the scheme, along with three other associates, were charged by the justice department.
Interestingly, AirBit founders have a history of running Ponzi schemes as they were fined $1.4 million three years ago for running Vizinova, another fraudulent scheme.
