Around ten hours ago the ArbiStar Ponzi scheme collapsed.

Appearing in a YouTube video, a plump Santi Fuentes dangled the prospect of refunds to Arbistar victims.

ArbiStar was a run-of-the-mill MLM crypto trading Ponzi run by a serial-scammer.

Its collapse shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Rather than admit he was running a Ponzi scheme and, other than what he personally stole, the money is gone, Santi Fuentes intends to pull a long sixteen month con.

Appearing in a video on the official ArbiStar YouTube channel on September 14th, Fuentes fed victims the following exit-scam:

The CEO Santi Fuentes explains the reason for the Closure of the Community and how the payments will be, a review of the Corporation’s companies and the temporary privatizing of the Arbistar Club.

The payments will be made in the following manner: first those who did not recover the contribution from their account will be paid.

Next will be those who have earned money on their accounts, received more on their return than the contribution they initially contributed.

There will be more than 2000 monthly payments, which is expected to be collected in 16 months but in reality will be much faster.

Ponzi schemes are a zero-sum equation and Fuentes can’t pay out more than has been invested.

The money ArbiStar scammers have been withdrawing for over a year and a half is gone. That creates a deficit, which is why ArbiStar has collapsed.

Standard Ponzi math.

What the “refunds” exit-scam model is used for is silencing victims for as long as possible. This is done in the hope an admin, Santi Fuentes in this instance, can make a clean escape with the money they’ve stolen.

Hence ArbiStar’s sixteen month long refund carrot, which is plenty of time for Fuentes to abscond.

Fuentes ran ArbiStar from Spain. His current whereabouts are unknown.

If Alexa’s traffic estimates are anything to go by, ArbiStar’s victims will primarily be from Mexico, Colombia and Argentina.

To date Spanish authorities have failed to take action against ArbiStar or Fuentes.

 

Update 23rd October 2020 – Spanish authorities have arrested Santi Fuentes.