Gutemberg Dos Santos
Co-founder of the ~$100M AirBit Club crypto pyramid scheme. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2023 to 40 months in prison, with forfeiture of assets.
Also known as: Gutemberg Silva Dos Santos
Bio
Gutemberg Dos Santos co-founded AirBit Club with Pablo Renato Rodriguez in 2015 and served as a primary promoter of the scheme, which the SDNY said defrauded victims of roughly $100 million through false promises of guaranteed crypto mining and trading returns. [1][2]
Legal outcome
Dos Santos pleaded guilty and, on October 4, 2023, was sentenced to 40 months in prison, with forfeiture of assets. He and Rodriguez had previously paid $1.7 million to settle SEC charges over a separate scheme (Vizinova). [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
Evolved Apes (NFT)ProjectsAn NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.