TelexFree owners: Investors were “dumb people”
In order for owners and early investors of Ponzi schemes to withdraw money, they have to convince those below them to reinvest.
Also referred to as “compounding” or “building”, in a nutshell non-existent money is recycled into more non-existent money, all the while real money is being pulled out by admins and early investors.
Everybody winks and thinks they’re getting rich because balances in their backoffices continue to grow. When the time comes to withdraw though, it all falls apart.
In TelexFree, currently the largest MLM Ponzi scheme of all time, things were no different.
While BehindMLM and the few publications following the scam continued to call them out on Ponzi fraud, TelexFree had a loyal affiliate-base who believed anything its owners told them.
Private conversation between owners Carlos Wanzeler (right) and Carlos Costa however, reveal TelexFree affiliates were played for fools.
In mid 2014 Brazilian authorities launched Operation Orion, a criminal investigation into Ympactus, the Brazilian arm of TelexFree.
Following a recent court decision, evidence collected as part of Operation Orion has now been made public.
Before the SEC shutdown TelexFree in 2014, Ympactus in Brazil had already run out of money to pay local investors with.
In an April, 2014 conversation between Wanzeler and Costa, Wanzeler lamented the shortcomings of Ponzi math.
More than 70% reinvested the winnings. You can trust me in that number.
They always do this and you (sic) know this … if not more. Lol dumb people. Kkkkkk.
Evidence collected during Operation Orion also demonstrates Wanzeler and Costa appearing to knowingly circumvent a Brazilian court order.
A court in Acre suspended Ympactus’ Brazilian operations by way of injunction in June, 2013. Wanzeler and Costa ignored the injunction and had Brazilian affiliates sign up via the US.
When Brazilian media reported on their efforts, they weren’t too happy about it but continued to violate the injunction anyway.
It seems that it came out in the gazette (sic) yes that leaders would be making network abroad … so be very careful.
Rafael Lima, a criminal defense attorney representing Carlos Wanzeler, stated he would not comment on the specifics of Wanzeler and Costa’s conversations.
Lima stated the conversations have been taken out of context and that the evidence should have remained sealed.
Wanzeler, Costa and a slew of TelexFree insiders were indicted by Brazilian authorities last month. The case is currently playing out in court.
While the intellectual ability of the victims Wanzeler and Costa scammed certainly doesn’t justify their actions, I sort of get where they’re coming from.
How else do you describe someone took TelexFree’s business model and Carlos Costa’s rants about god seriously?
Three years later, we’ve now pretty much got the same thing going on with OneCoin. It’s the same type of people falling for the same Ponzi scam, albeit with a different coat of paint.
Are these people all stupid and/or assholes?
While the merits of such a discussion might be debatable, what we know for sure is the vast majority of them wind up losing money.
Behind every BusinessForHome Ponzi success story relentlessly splashed about on social media, there are ultimately thousands of victims paying for it.
There’s also the Wanzelers family feud:
And, of course, one of the funniest things is that Costa and Wanzeler’s “dumb people” conversation was held over Skype, the same software they used to say was their “competitor”.
The money’s got to come from somewhere. The last ones in always lose.
Gee, Lyvia Wanzeler sounds like an entitled princess hey.
Lyvia Wanzeler was the one that went on the run across the border to Canada with her daddy leaving her mother to get arrested at JFK later.
Just to clearify, ‘burro’ is the portuguese word for the animal donkey, ass. In this context, it means stupid, dumb people (like you said), but never mean asshole.
For ‘asshole’ we use more the FDP abreviation (‘Filho da …’) meaning ‘Son of a …’.
Back to the main theme, is also important to add that Carlos Costa and many of top telexfree promoters are still robbing ppl while not oficially convicted.
They started a new company called ‘Voxbrás’, pretty much same scheme of Telexfree.
Names like Renato Alves and Carlos Castilho are involved, to mention a few.
There is also a 2nd branch that created ‘Telexbit’, another Telexfree-like company.
In this 2nd group you can find Shawke Lira, Giovanni Guedes, Marcio Gomes, Inocêncio (Pelé) Reis and Vilson Souza.
Lets see the response of Brazilian authorities to this.
I always thought brazilian law enforcements should try follow the US example, by imposing restrictions in people under investigation for ponzi related crimes.
I mean, these people should be denied from continue in the same kind of activity they are being investigated for.
I remember US court notified Sann Rodrigues that he COULD NOT continue to promote MLM while being investigated for Telexfree matters.
Oops, typo: Is not Renato ‘Teixeira’. His name is Renato ALVES.
He is one of the people claiming credits. Look at the list:
https://behindmlm.com/companies/telexfree/telexfree-file-for-bankruptcy-in-the-us/
Thanks for that clarification. Fixed!
Leaving the permalink as is??
Fixed that too! <3
Important: If Wanzeler has acquired American citizenship he can be extradited to the United States if the American Justice requests Brazil.
This is because there is a new understanding of the Brazilian Supreme Court (MS 33.864, April 2016): Brazilians who voluntarily naturalized US citizens lose their native Brazilian citizenship and can be extradited. American authorities need to know that.