AirBit Club co-conspirator has his bond reduced
One of the individuals behind large-scale cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme AirBit Club has had his bond reduced. Today, Judge George B. Daniels of the New York Southern District Court signed an order axing the bond for Scott Hughes.
Hughes is presently released on bond. At his first Court appearance back in August 2020, he posted a $250,000.00 appearance bond that has been deposited with the United States District Court. On Mr. Hughes’ behalf and with his consent, his counsel requested that his bond conditions be modified as follows: that the $250,000.00 appearance bond be reduced to $150,000.00 and that the remaining $100,000.00 be released back to him for the purpose of funding his legal costs and expenses.
Today, the Court granted the motion.
Let’s recall that, on August 18, 2020, the Department of Justice announced charges against a number of individuals behind AirBit Club. The list included Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Gutemberg Dos Santos, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan and Jackie Aguilar.
The defendants participated in a coordinated scheme in which victim-investors were induced to invest in AirBit Club based on the promise of guaranteed profits in exchange for cash investments in club “memberships”. Promoters falsely promised the victims that AirBit Club earned returns on cryptocurrency mining and trading and that the victims would earn passive, guaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased.
Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Hughes, Millan, and Aguilar traveled throughout the United States, and around the world to places in Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, where they hosted lavish expos and small community presentations aimed at convincing investors to purchase AirBit Club memberships.
Hughes, an attorney licensed to practice law in California, had previously represented Rodriguez and Dos Santos in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation related to another investment scheme known as Vizinova before aiding Rodriguez and Dos Santos in perpetrating the AirBit Club Scheme by, among other things, helping to remove negative information about AirBit Club and Vizinova from the internet.
Hughes and the other defendants in this case sought to conceal the AirBit Club scheme, as well as their respective control of the proceeds of that scheme, by requesting that the victims purchase memberships in cash, using third-party cryptocurrency brokers, and by laundering the scheme’s proceeds through several domestic and foreign bank accounts, including an attorney trust account managed by Hughes. The Hughes Trust Account was ostensibly intended to maintain custody of Hughes’s law practice’s client funds.
Instead, the Hughes Trust Account was used by Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Hughes, and Millan to conceal the nature and origin of the AirBit Club Scheme’s illicit proceeds. Through that account, Hughes directed the victim funds to the personal expenses of Rodriguez, Dos Santos, Millan, and himself, and funded promotional events and sponsorships designed to further promote the AirBit Club scheme.
In total, the defendants laundered at least $20 million in proceeds of the scheme through these various methods.