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In an “exclusive interview” with Brazil’s Globo, Alessandra Marques has announced that she expects the Acre criminal case against TelexFree to be “completed by mid-year”.

As it stands now, the Acre Public Prosecutor’s Office have submitted over 40,000 pages of evidence against TelexFree, currently being pored over by Judge Thais Borges.

After Judge Borges is finished going over the Prosecutor’s evidence, “experts” will be heard from (on both sides) and then “final judgement” will be ruled.

Affiliate investors in TelexFree will naturally adopt a “let’s see what happens” approach, but given TelexFree’s business model how the case will turn out is pretty obvious.

From Marques,

Multilevel marketing in Brazil, despite not being covered by specific legislation, is not unlawful. What is illegal is the formation of a pyramid scheme and that’s what has happened with TelexFree.

The sale of VoIP [Voice over Internet Protocol phone system sold by Telexfree the internet], is only one form of compensation among the eight or nine forms that the company pays out on.

In analysing TelexFree’s business model, what you come to realize is that it is supported primarily by inflow of new people in networks and not from the sale of VOIP.

This is emphasised by the fact that everyone I have heard from that has invested in Telexfree, said that they did not purchase the VOIP. Some did not even know what it is for.

TelexFree themselves have anticipated how the case will turn out by “severing” ties with Ympactus, which was the front company Carlos Costa, James Merril and Carlos Wanzeler used to operate TelexFree in Brazil.

Now Brazilian TelexFree affiliates are being encouraged to sign up fraudulently via US banking channels using fake identification.

What wasn’t discussed in the interview was Marques’ previous mention of a US regulatory investigation underway into TelexFree.

iG meanwhile are reporting that ‘U.S. officials, however, did not confirm or deny (Marques’) information‘. It should be noted that this is standard practice from US regulators, who are well-known for not commenting on open investigations.

iG are also reporting that following an influx of new TelexFree investor money from Portugal, authorities there are beginning to educate themselves on the company.

According to the local media there are currently 41,000 TelexFree affiliate investors in Madeira, an autonomous region in Portugal. This figure represents 16% of the island’s total population.

Judicial Police in Madeira have begun to collect documents on Telexfree. The eventual opening of an investigation, however, will only occur when complaints from aggrieved investors of the business are received.

With the money Portuguese affiliate investors have dumped into the scheme funding the ROIs of TelexFree affiliates who came before them, I guess those complaints won’t get filed until it’s time for Portuguese affiliates to cash out.

That is of course unless, TelexFree can continue to migrate the opportunity from country to country, fleecing new investors as they go.

Steve Labriola, TelexFree’s International Marketing Director, recently announced that he would be “travelling all over the world” over the coming months. No doubt Labriola’s primary objective is to oversee the continued acquisition of new investors in TelexFree’s emerging markets.

On the call Labriola also denied Alessandra Marques’ claims of a US regulatory investigation. Labriola claimed there couldn’t be a US investigation because nobody had called him up to talk about it.

Stay tuned…

 

Footnote: My thanks to BehindMLM readers Emilio Rubens and Frontier for a heads up on the latest news.