The AirBit Club was a global cryptocurrency-based pyramid scheme operated and promoted by Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Gutemberg dos Santos and others. The scheme began in 2015 and continued for a number of years thereafter. Thousands of victims were induced to purchase “memberships” in AirBit Club based on promises of guaranteed daily returns from AirBit Club’s purported crypto mining and trading activities. In reality, these activities and reported returns were fictitious.

Victims were recruited to join the AirBit Club through personal solicitations, as well as through elaborate expos and small community-based presentations in the United States, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Upon purchasing memberships, victims were provided access to AirBit Club’s online portal that falsely displayed growing earnings and returns on their memberships. In reality, investor funds were used to enrich those running the scheme, and to fund further recruitment events to keep the scheme running. When investors tried to withdraw funds, they were met with delays, fees sometimes exceeding 50%, or outright account freezes.

AVF was created by DOJ to serve as the vehicle for returning net proceeds from assets forfeited from the AirBit Club prosecution to the victims whose money was stolen.

To be eligible to participate in payments from the AVF, a person must be a “victim” of the AirBit fraud. A victim is any person who suffered a pecuniary loss as a direct result of the AirBit fraud. Any person who did not suffer such a loss, such as someone who passed along someone else’s money, is not eligible for any recovery.

For purposes of the AVF, you qualify as a victim if you can demonstrate three things:

1. You made an investment in the AirBit Club (i.e., you purchased a membership in AirBit Club or made another form of investment in the AirBit Club).
2. You used your own cash or your own virtual currency to make the investment in the AirBit Club. Victims are the people who actually invested, not people who transferred or managed someone else’s money.
3. You held an investment in the AirBit Club when the fraud was discovered and the AirBit Club collapsed. In other words, you must have invested in AirBit Club and had some remaining investment before the collapse. If you withdrew all of the funds you invested before the collapse, you would not qualify as a “victim”.

Yes, the Part 9 Regulations outline several core situations that would disqualify a petitioner participating the AVF. First, you may not have knowingly contributed to or participated in the operations of the fraud, or acted in a “willfully blind” manner toward the fraudulent scheme. You also may not have benefited from the fraud. Petitioners will be required to certify to this effect as part of your petition form submission. All determinations as to disqualification will be made by DOJ based on the particular facts and circumstances presented in each case.

Eligibility is based on a victim having purchased an AirBit Club membership using their own cash or virtual currency. Qualifying purchases may have been made from the AirBit Club itself, or from one of its representatives. Purchases from another individual who was already an AirBit Club member also qualify for a recovery if other requirements of the Part 9 Regulations are satisfied. For example, no matter who you purchased a membership from, you must be able to demonstrate that you used your own money for the purchase.

Membership interests acquired through means other than a direct purchase, including the reinvestment of “profits”, use of account rewards, or use of “points” awarded for recruiting investors into the AirBit Club will NOT be eligible for a recovery from AVF. AVF will not compensate anyone for memberships acquired in any manner other than a purchase for cash or virtual currency.

Some investors were required to pay a monthly or other periodic fee to maintain their memberships in the AirBit Club. If these monthly or other periodic fees were paid in “new” cash or virtual currency (as opposed to being paid with fictitious profits or account rewards), the amount of those payments will be included when AVF computes your losses. Please be sure to include these payments in your petition form when you fill it out.

Generally, the AirBit Club fraud scheme began in September, 2015 and continued through August, 2020. To be eligible for consideration by AVF, you must have made your purchases during this time period.

No. The AirBit Club fraud was committed against investors around the world, and AVF will provide compensation irrespective of the victim’s nationality.

Losses are computed based on the “cash-in, cash-out” method. Each person must document the aggregate of all their cash and virtual currency purchases of AirBit Club memberships or other investments. The cash and virtual currency that you put into the scheme is the amount that you “invested”, and that amount was stolen from you. Fictitious profits that were reported to you are not cash contributions of your own money, and they are not included in the computation of your “cash-in”.

The total of cash-in transactions is reduced by the aggregate amount of cash and virtual currency that you took out of AirBit Club. It doesn’t matter whether you thought you were withdrawing principal from your account or redeeming “profits” that you were told you had earned.  All cash and virtual currency that you withdrew is subtracted from all the cash and virtual currency that you invested. In computing the amount of your losses, any compensation you received for transferring AirBit Club membership interests to other investors will reduce the amount of your loss.

The “cash-in, cash-out” computation assures that losses are measured strictly on the basis of economic substance, rather than promises made in the fraud. Cash and virtual currency that actually went into the scheme is reduced by cash and virtual currency that was withdrawn before the scheme collapsed. The result is the net amount stolen from each investor. Importantly, AVF will reduce your “cash-in” by the amount you actually received, not the amount you requested. This means that if you were charged for fees or other withholding on a withdrawal, your investment in the fraud will only be reduced by the net amount that you actually received in withdrawals.

AVF will compensate only cash-in, cash-out pecuniary losses. Non-monetary losses such as the time value of money, potential alternative earnings elsewhere, emotional distress or other factors are not included in the computation of loss. If a person withdrew more than the cash they actually invested, even if they thought that there were accumulated profits in their account, they will not be considered to have suffered a loss.

We appreciate that investors may have believed they had actually “earned” the amounts they were told were credited to their membership account. This was part of the AirBit Club fraud. Almost everyone hurt in any such fraudulent scheme suffers from losing their actual net cash investment and also losing profits they genuinely believed had been in their accounts. Under the Part 9 Regulations, however, AVF can only provide compensation for net cash and virtual currency investments lost in the fraud.

Each cash purchaser of an AirBit Club membership must document their cash purchase with third-party documentation acceptable to AVF. Affidavits or signed statements without supporting documentation are not accepted. Documents reflecting a purchase include materials such as bank statements, cancelled checks, wire transfer records and other electronic transaction records. Some victims of the fraud delivered cash to AirBit Club in person without “bank-type” documents. However, AVF can’t accept claims of cash payments without some reasonable verification. AVF will work with victims to evaluate their available evidence.

Each petitioner must also disclose all withdrawals they made from their AirBit Club account and provide us with documents demonstrating the amount of withdrawals. Each petitioner should also provide documentation showing the balance in their account as of August, 2020, if available.

AVF and DOJ will review any paperwork you have to substantiate your investments, and we will do everything possible to assist each victim. However, it is your responsibility to establish the amount of your loss. The AVF website will publish further guidance on acceptable forms of documentation as the process continues.

Screenshots showing your AirBit Club account or emails confirming your membership in the AirBit Club may be submitted to show that you participated in the AirBit Club scheme. However, these screenshots or emails, on their own, will not be sufficient to document the amount of your cash-in, cash-out losses. You will need to provide additional evidence to demonstrate the amount of the losses you suffered from investing in the AirBit Club.

If you purchased an AirBit Club membership using virtual currency, or used virtual currency to fund a portion of your investment in the AirBit Club, you must document the purchase or investment through AVF’s online portal.

As part of your petition submission, you must provide:

• The type of virtual currency used for the transaction (BTC, ETH, etc.);
• The amount of virtual currency used for the transaction;
• The wallet address used to perform the transaction;
• The transaction ID for each of the relevant transactions;
• Any other statements, screenshots, etc. that you have evidencing the transaction; and
• Emails confirming the membership in the AirBit Club or screenshots of your AirBit Club account.

Yes, you will need to prove to us that you own the wallet that was used to facilitate the transactions you claim.

We will use a wallet verification process during the deficiency cure stage of the AVF administration process. We will provide further details and instructions at that time for affected investors.

No. Investors could purchase AirBit Club memberships at different pricing tiers (e.g., $250, $500, $1,000), but what tier you were in will not affect the calculation of loss. AVF will calculate every investor’s losses based purely on their cash-in and cash-out transactions.

No. As noted above, losses will be calculated based solely on the cash you invested, less the cash you withdrew. Any costs that you incurred in borrowing funds you used to invest in AirBit Club are not part of your “loss” for purposes of AVF. The same would be true if you sold stocks to raise the cash you invested, and those stocks later rose in value significantly. In all cases, AVF is only allowed to provide compensation against losses from investments in AirBit Club itself, not other costs or expenses each investor might have incurred indirectly.

The answer to this question will depend on all the facts and circumstances. Under the Part 9 Regulations, persons who knowingly “participated in” or “benefitted from” the fraudulent scheme at AirBit Club are generally not eligible for remission. Depending on the particular facts, your activities may or may not result in disqualification.

Someone who acted as a “promoter” and recruited victims to purchase AirBit Club memberships by contacting numerous prospective investors or hosting recruitment events and earned money for doing so would most likely be disqualified. On the other hand, someone who only introduced family or friends on an inconsequential basis, purely incidental to their own investments, might remain eligible.

If you participated in efforts to promote the AirBit Club membership investment, you are required to disclose in your petition form information or documentation that describes your efforts. Among other things, you must disclose the number of people you recruited to make AirBit Club investments, your relationship to the investors and the compensation or other “benefits” you received.

If you invested in the AirBit Club through someone other than a defendant in the AirBit Club criminal case, you should disclose the identity of the person who recruited you into the AirBit Club. This will help us identify individuals whose ties to the fraud indicated knowing participation or that they received a benefit.

The petition form includes additional details regarding these disclosure requirements. The Department will consider the facts and circumstances of each case and ultimately make the decision regarding the eligibility of each petitioner.

No. In this case, there were not any real investments, investment earnings or “profits”.  Whatever investors put into AirBit Club was simply stolen from them. Whatever investors withdrew was a partial recovery of what had been stolen from them. If an investor withdrew more than they put into the scheme for any reason, that individual was a “net winner” on a cash basis and is not eligible for a recovery.

Everyone who had money in the AirBit Club was victimized in one way or another. Those who withdrew more than they put in still suffered trauma, because they believed that they had a certain level of accumulated profits that suddenly disappeared. Finding out that those profits never existed and that their “loss” was far smaller than they thought was the case would be shocking to anyone. However, by law AVF may not compensate non-pecuniary losses such as failure to receive fictitious profits. The concepts of “interest” or “return on investment”, though perfectly natural in real markets, are not relevant when there never were any real investments.

No, see A16. Every investor could have done something differently with their money rather than invest in AirBit Club. Most legitimate alternative investments to AirBit Club would have generated a return in some magnitude. While the AVF can provide compensation based on actual cash lost in the fraud, it cannot compensate for losses from missed, alternative investment opportunities.

No, AVF distributions will only be made in fiat currency. Further, in determining the amount of your loss, the Part 9 Regulations require a determination of pecuniary loss based on the fair market value of the virtual currency at the date the loss occurred. Accordingly, AVF will determine the amount of your loss based on the value of the virtual currency you invested as of the date of the investment in the AirBit Club. The market performance of the virtual currency since the time you funded your AirBit Club investment cannot be considered in determining the amount of your loss.

Generally, yes. However, the Department has disqualified certain categories of persons from participating in the AVF. Set forth below is a partial list of causes for disqualification. The Department retains the discretion to modify these categories. In all cases the Department reviews petitions on a case-by-case basis.

Disqualified persons or entities generally include:

1. Any person who knowingly participated in, benefitted from, or acted in a willfully blind manner relating to the AirBit Club scheme;
2. Any person who was an officer, director, employee or member of the Master Council of AirBit Club at any time during the scheme;
3. Any person who has forfeited cash or property to the DOJ in connection with the AirBit Club scheme;
4. Any person who was/is a defendant in any state or federal criminal action relating to the AirBit Club;
5. Any affiliates, assigns, heirs, distributees, spouses, parents, children or relatives of disqualified individuals or entities controlled by, or under common control with any such persons, as the Department may determine;
6. Any person who is otherwise prohibited from receiving payments in the United States, including all prohibited persons under regulations of the Office of Foreign Assets Control; and
7. Any employee or consultant of RCB Fund Services LLC or Richard C. Breeden & Company LLC.

It is not likely that losses relating to investments in the Vizinova fraud scheme or other related schemes will be eligible for a recovery from the AVF. These determinations will be made by the Department on a case-by-case basis after considering all of the relevant facts and circumstances.

A21. As part of the scheme, AirBit Club launched a cryptocurrency coin called TRAXALT. It appears in some cases investors may have purchased the TRAXALT coins, while in other instances investors received TRAXALT coins as satisfaction for a requested withdrawal.

It is unclear at this time if purchases of TRAXALT coins will be eligible for a recovery from the AVF. These determinations will be made by the Department after considering all relevant facts and circumstances.

There are two ways to submit a petition to the AVF. There is an online filing portal that is available on the AVF website. A petitioner or their legal representative can input all of his or her information via the online filing portal and upload any required supporting documentation. In addition, petition forms are available on the AVF website. You may print out the form, complete it and then mail or email it to the AVF.

If you are submitting a petition that involves the purchase of AirBit Club memberships using virtual currency, you must use the online filing portal available on the AVF website.

Instructions for submitting a petition, including what documentation must be provided, are included in the online filing portal and on the petition form itself.

If you are submitting a petition using the online filing portal, it must be submitted before midnight on July 31, 2026. If you are mailing the petition form, it must be postmarked no later than July 31, 2026.

Yes. Any and all information you may have (e.g., login ID/username, login credentials) or documentation you may have (e.g., screenshots of your account, other statements, etc.) will be helpful in processing your petition. Please provide this information and documentation to the AVF with your petition. You should provide copies of your documentation, not the originals.

The DOJ and AVF possess some information and records from the AirBit Club. However, any additional documentation or information you are able to provide can be used to further corroborate the details of your petition submission.

Yes, you will still need to submit a Petition to the AVF as there are elements of the Petition Form that must be completed. However, you do not need to provide documentation in support of your petition that you have already provided to the Department.

We are working with the Department to identify all individuals that have already made a submission regarding their investment in the AirBit Club fraud. The AVF has all of the documentation that has already been submitted to the Department. We hope to use all of the information and documentation already provided to help you establish your petition and minimize any additional burden on you.

The AVF staff will review your petition and the related information and documentation provided in support of the claim. After the initial review of your petition, AVF will provide a Notice informing you of the status of your petition. This Notice will detail any issues or deficiencies relating to your petition. It will also provide detailed instructions regarding the information or documentation required to cure the deficiencies.

After the “deficiency cure stage” of the case is complete and DOJ has made a decision on your petition, the AVF will issue a Decision Notice (“Decision”) advising you as to whether DOJ has approved or denied your petition. Upon receipt of the Decision, if you are dissatisfied with the treatment of your petition you will have a limited amount of time to request reconsideration of the determination. All requests for reconsideration will be reviewed by AVF staff and DOJ personnel. However, under the Part 9 Regulations the DOJ ruling official on a request for reconsideration will not be the same person who made the initial determination of the petition.

At any point during the process, you can contact the AVF customer service personnel to address any questions regarding your petition or the overall AVF administration process.

Yes. If you receive payments for your loss from another source (e.g., class action proceeding, insurance recoveries, etc.), those recoveries will be applied to reduce your eligible loss. As part of your petition submission, you will be required to report to AVF all prior recoveries. You may also have to update and/or certify the amount of your recoveries at intervals during the AVF administration process.

Generally, the Part 9 Regulations require that remission be granted to victims on a pro rata basis. If the amount of the forfeited property is not sufficient to pay all granted petitions in full, each victim will receive an equal percentage share of their losses.

U.S. victims will be paid by check. Victims located outside the U.S. may be paid by check, wire, or other acceptable electronic payment method.

No. The AVF will distribute all proceeds in fiat currency, either by check or electronic payment. The AVF will not provide recoveries to victims in virtual currency.

No, the AVF will not withhold any taxes from the distribution you may receive. It will be your responsibility to determine and pay any taxes you may owe on recoveries you receive from the AVF.

Yes. If the decedent would have met the AVF eligibility standards, the AVF will accept petitions from, and make distributions to, a court-appointed executor or administrator of the decedent’s Estate. The court-appointed executor or administrator will be required to provide documentary evidence of his/her appointment and will be responsible for making further distributions to the decedent’s beneficiaries or heirs.

No. The AVF process is conducted by the United States Government, and seeking a recovery from AVF does not require ANY payment. Do not send funds to any person claiming to represent the United States, DOJ or AVF. Please report any attempt to solicit funds to AVF’s Help Desk immediately.

Please see the public service announcement from FBI regarding crypto recovery schemes at the following link: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Fictitious Law Firms Targeting Cryptocurrency Scam Victims Combine Multiple Exploitation Tactics While Offering to Recover Funds

There is no requirement for you to hire an attorney, and most fraud victims should not find it necessary to do so. You will not be able to receive compensation from AVF for fees paid to legal advisors. While AVF does not provide legal advice, AVF will provide technical assistance with the remission forms and clearly explain any defects that must be cured. Though a claim process can seem complex to some, AVF will do everything possible to make the process easy to understand so that victims can handle the necessary paperwork by themselves.

Of course, you are free to hire an attorney if you wish to do so. However, that is purely a matter of personal choice.

If you decide to retain an attorney, the Part 9 Regulations require that your petition must be accompanied by a signed and sworn statement stating that:

• • the attorney has the authority to represent you in connection with the submission of the petition;
  •  you have fully reviewed the petition; and
  •  the petition is truthful and accurate in every respect.

A copy of the required Notice of Representation is available on the AVF website.

This is a legitimate process that is overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice. You can find additional information and resources about the case and this process at the address www.justice.gov.In addition, here are links to the relevant DOJ press releases regarding this case. Press Release 1,  Press Release 2, Press Release 3.

 Your information will be used to process your petition. Your information will be shared with the Department as necessary during the course of the AVF administration, or as might otherwise be required by law.

 Social security numbers are collected to maintain compliance with the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (DCIA), 31 U.S.C. § 3716. The DCIA requires the Department of the Treasury and other disbursing officials to offset Federal payments to collect delinquent non-tax debts owed to the United States, or delinquent debts owed to states, including past-due child support enforced by states. If an offset is made during an electronic funds transfer, the petitioner will receive a notification from the Department of the Treasury at the last address provided by the debtor to the creditor. If you believe that your payment may be subject to an offset, you may contact the Treasury Department at 1-800-304-3107. If you have a social security number, failure to provide the number will result in denial of your petition.

We recognize the importance of keeping your personal information secure, and we do everything under our control to ensure this data is protected. This personal information will be shared with the Department as necessary during the administration process, or as might otherwise be required by law.

A victim is the person or entity that suffered a pecuniary loss as a direct result of the criminality that gave rise to the forfeiture of assets in this case. That status cannot be purchased or transferred. AVF will not make payment to claim purchasers or assignees.

Neither the AVF nor the Department is involved in any transactions you may have entered into, or any obligations you may have, to pay money to other people. If you have an obligation to pay someone in the event you receive a distribution from AVF, that is between you and such person.

If you need to make a different payment arrangement through your attorney or another legal representative, you should contact the AVF Help Desk.

Contact us at (800) 765-7251 or, for international callers, (315) 251-6079. Or, email our Help Desk to update any information or ask any other question at info@airbitvictimfund.com.

Please contact us using the options described in Q38 if you have any questions. An email or a call to our Help Desk is the best starting point for any inquiry.