TelexFree gives up in court, lawyer won’t comment
Following the loss of TelexFree’s interlocutory appeal early last week, it appears that the company filed yet another appeal in an attempt to persuade the Acre Civil Court to reverse an injunction that currently prevents the company paying out existing investors or signing new ones on.
From a legal standpoint TelexFree’s appeal doesn’t make much sense (an appeal of an appeal?), as I believed the interlocutory appeal was the final appeal hearing in the Acre Civil Court.
In any case, TelexFree’s appeal of the decision handed down on the 12th (which upheld the injunction) was scheduled to be heard last Tuesday. A few hours before the hearing was to take place however, TelexFree got cold feet and abandoned the effort altogether.
TelexFree’s special appeal was scheduled to be judged in the Civil Chamber last Monday (19), but ended struck from the cause list because the company withdrew their appeal.
According to a (court) spokesperson, TelexFree’s lawyers filed a request to withdraw the appeal a few hours before the session, claiming that their request was harmed because of the merits of the appeal had already been dismissed by the 2nd Civil Chamber.
Why it took TelexFree a whole week to come to the conclusion that filing an eleventh appeal against the injunction using the same “we’re not a Ponzi scheme” arguments was a lost cause, is a mystery.
When questioned by the media about the withdrawal, TelexFree’s lawyer Roberto Duarte said he ‘does not talk about the company‘.
Earlier this week TelexFree owner Carlos Costa announced that the company was going to submit a petition to the courts in Brazil.
Which court the petition was to be filed in is not clear, however Costa believes that by demanding TelexFree be allowed to use a matrix-based model (which has been taken from the existing TelexFree compensation plan), that the company will prove itself not to be a Ponzi scheme.
The main difference between the matrix model and TelexFree’s existing model is that instead of affiliates investing and being paid $20 per position invested in each week, affiliates will buy matrix positions and receive 2% of each position under them each month.
I imagine the petition will now have to be filed in the Superior Court if it indeed goes ahead. Due to the timing of Costa’s announcement however (late last week before last Monday’s now aborted hearing), it’s unclear whether or not the petition will still be filed.
Stay tuned…
What about Telexfree in USA? Here Telexfree is working normally.
Yesterday, Telexfree, BBOM and other company’s directors where in a Congress Comitee, trying to make politicians elaborate a law to “legalize MLM” (i.e. legalize the weekly US$ 20 model).
Of course, there were Telexfree affiliates in the galleries to clap him and yell the people who were talking against this model
An Ice Cream Shop named a new concoction “TelexFree”, invites judge to taste it to “prove” TelexFree is not a pyramid scheme.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdiariodigital.sapo.pt%2Fnews.asp%3Fid_news%3D651757
I’ll add it to my list. I have a list of different “standard suggestions” when people are becoming too emotional about all the good things a program have done to all the participants around the World, e.g. “everyone were making money”.
Using Wazzub as an example, my suggestions have typically been about asking the mayors in their home towns to raise a statue of the founders, or rename a street or a place to “Wazzub Street” or “Wazzub Plaza”, or introduce a new nation wide “Wazzub Day” each year.
I can add ice cream to that list. That’s something people can enjoy whenever they want,
@Brazilian
Hasn’t anybody told them yet that “legalize MLM” doesn’t equate to “legalize Ponzi schemes”?
Yeah and how long do you think that’s going to last? Try as they might to pretend they are two separate companies TelexFree only operate under the one banner globally.
more news about Brazilian Telexfree affiliates joining the company in other countries, this time in Paraguay:
http://veja.abril.com.br/noticia/economia/telexfree-tenta-angariar-brasileiros-para-investir-no-paraguai
I stopped listening when at [1:31] Costa opened with “we sell a product” as his primary argument.
Obviously he’s never heard of a product-based Ponzi scheme. /facepalm.
@Oz, I’m asking you if you know what is happening in USA, I’m not refuting you anything, just I want to know if you have any news about telexfree usa.
As far as I’m aware, two of TelexFree’s owners are hiding out in the US and trying to run the global operations from there.
Brazil was the biggest market and where most of the $$$ was. Due to paying $20 a week on $289, it’ll take a while for US funds in the scheme to exhaust themselves but I’d give it within 12 months.
It will only take ONE order from the Court in Acre, passed through and executed by a court locally in the U.S., to shut it down completely.
It’s the ACTIVITIES that have been banned, not the COMPANIES. It was the network marketing parts of the companies that actually were banned, not the companies themselves.
Assets freeze was directed against the OWNERS and MAIN ORGANIZERS rather than against the ENTITIES.
So TelexFree LLC (or Inc.) in the U.S. can be shut down too. The Court in Acre has the correct “subject matter jurisdiction” for any type of illegal commercial activity in the case. It also has geographical jurisdiction within Acre, including jurisdiction for any cross border activities. But to be able to execute an order in the U.S., it will need a local Court’s personal jurisdiction.
But so far we haven’t heard or read anything about any court orders through a U.S. court. An order like that may have a similar effect as the injunction in Brazil = a complete shutdown of the activities within a couple of days.
TelexFree Brazil or the individual parties involved in the case have been represented by minimum 3 different law firms.
Parties involved in a case have the right to be informed about each and every part of the case “through proper channels”, normally through their own lawyer. They also have the right to be properly represented in Court, e.g. the right to file appeals.
3 law firms is an indicator for that James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler already are represented in the case in Brazil, as individual parties.
Some documents, e.g. executable orders, will need to go through a court with personal jurisdiction. The subject matter parts of a case can be handled locally in Brazil, but the execution of e.g. an assets freeze in the U.S. will need to go through a local court in the U.S. with personal jurisdiction.
Most of the different appeals in Brazil seems to have been about DELAYING a final order, e.g. you have “injunction against the injunction” and appeals that never have been intended to be tried in Court (e.g. they have been withdrawn the same day they should have been tried in Court).
TelexFree USA will probably also be directly affected, but it will first require a final order from the Court in Acre, and it will need to be executed through a Court in the USA.
As any racional person knew, Telexfree’s Voip was just a decoy for their Ponzi scam.
Now, Anatel (Brazilian regulatory agency) has officially declared Telexfree’s service as clandestine:
http://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/app/noticia/economia/2013/08/23/internas_economia,458026/telexfree-pagou-multa-de-r-4-mil-a-anatel-por-operar-sem-autorizacao.shtml
No surprise in that. Actually, only one: the value of the fine, that is just meaningless. Only R$ 4.062 (way less than USD 2.000 nowadays)… Come on!
So basically they’re just trying to buy third-party companies to hold up the VOIP front. Meanwhile all they have on the TelexFree end of the business is the Ponzi scheme.
Found on Telexfree Official facebook site. Dated August 17th?
Am I seeing things or is Telexfree still encouraging people in Brazil to participate in their scheme?
@Dorothy
Given that appears to have been published by an affiliate I think it’s just more of the “sign up overseas and continue to participate” marketing from Brazilian affiliates.
The local news did a report on it so I’m sure the PP is aware of it. They haven’t used it against TelexFree yet though as far as I’m aware of.