Crypto Club Founders Helped Launder $20 Million, DOJ Says

The founders of a cryptocurrency club are facing criminal charges for allegedly running a fraud and money laundering ring that bilked investors out of tens of millions of dollars, according to the Justice Department.

Pablo Renato Rodriguez of Irvine, Calif., and Gutemberg Dos Santos of Panama City, Panama, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, the DOJ said Tuesday. An indictment charging them was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Rodriguez, Dos Santos, and various promoters started marketing AirBit Club to investors in 2015, two years before ...