Brazilian police raid iFreeX event, Sann Rodrigues arrested?
Dramatic scenes unfolded overnight at an iFreeX event held in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.
Speaking at the event was Sann Rodrigues, who has fled the US following regulatory action initiated against TelexFree.
Rodrigues was the largest net-winner in the $1.8 billion dollar Ponzi scheme, purportedly stealing in excess of $3 million from investors who joined after him.
Officers from the Grupo de Apoio à Execução Penal (GAEP) apparently observed the iFreeX event, before raiding the stage towards its conclusion.
Why the officers waited till the event was over or nearly over before moving in towards the stage is unclear, but one possibility is they were collecting surveillance evidence.
Details of exactly what went down at the conclusion of the event are sketchy, but I’ve seen preliminary reports from those in attendance stating that Sann Rodrigues and another individual have been arrested.
They were taken directly from the event to a local police station for questioning.
The officers in attendance can clearly be seen sporting GAEP emblazoned uniforms. As I understand it, the GAEP is a special police division that offers logistic support to department’s criminal division.
A video has also surfaced which clearly shows GAEP officers making their way to the front of the iFreeX event while someone speaks on stage:
As this is a breaking story, stay tuned for expected updates and further clarification.
uh, ‘bouncer type’ guys wearing tshirts Clearly Emblazoned with GAEP, were hanging around the event, and these idiots still carried on ?
exceedingly smart 🙂
I thought they looked like commandos myself. I think it’s the berets.
Yes, this is a comandos special group. As we say in BR, this is to cut the Wings.
They will think twice for now on before doing live events of this fraud here.
This a especial task force for penal executions.
Uh what? They sent execution commandos to the event?
Wow, somebody sure wanted to send a message…
well, we can say beefy bouncer type special commandos who are entasked with ‘Penal Executions’, have sann rodrigues, in safe custody.
carlos’es costa and wanzeler, must be out, buying adult diapers.
I believe they were released, but for sure the message was loud and clear: we know what you did on last summer.
I’m using google translator – This episode there was nothing. No one was arrested! Information from a supposed email sent to police. No more email details.
And that an affiliate would desacatado a police officer and was arrested. There has been no arrest anyone.
Sann Rodrigues would have gone to the police station to release your commanded. The fact that the police appeared at the event and will soon be the Federal!
I don’t get it. Why would the police respond to an email? Why would they take Rodrigues off to the police station?
i’m sorry. if brazil wants to use a special commando force GAEP, against a ponzi/pyramid meet, and the accused are let off in a few hours, this dilutes the ‘seriousness’ and ‘public perception’ of an elite sophisticated force which is supposed to drum fear into criminals.
if you use GAEP, let there be serious consequences, else use the local police.
Arrested or not, Rodrigues appears to have left the police station.
He’s back on Facebook promoting iFreeX.
Basically they were there to collect evidences, names and facts. There are some investigations popping up here and there about iFreeX. Some really hard-line sheriffs are keeping both eyes on Rodrigue’s and his minions moves.
Believe me, they know what they’re doing and soon you’ll have more to talk about… 😉
(Google Translator)
gazetaonline.globo.com/_conteudo/2015/02/noticias/dinheiro/3888232-policia-invade-palestra-de-suposta-piramide-financeira.html
Well, it may convince the authorities in the Telexfree Case that he has violated his injunction.
Maybe they can work with the police who did the raid and authorities there to get him extradited back to the U.S.
in Brazil the “civil police” is an “investigative police”. civilian police, investigating not use uniforms. But the uniformed police are called by the investigative police to show the presence of police. To command respect and show that it’s serious.
Police in uniform that was there, is a “city guard” armed. Just that. It was not a prepared operation well in advance.
The complaint was made clear on the day of the event. They were to investigate the complaint of a ponzi activity and made basic procedures which was officially identify an explanation of what was unfolding in this event and identify the police delegadia the names and the presence of these 11 leaders in this event from this company.
The matter of the Journal Gazette tells the rest.
@Bernado Thanks for sharing that.
Sounds like nobody was arrested at the scene, but the eleven people were hauled off to collect evidence.
Going by the quoted remarks above, it appears it’s only a matter of time before Brazil regulators move in to freeze the business.
Then it’s going to be TelexFree all over again, albeit with a pyramid scheme twist this time around.
Those updates Rodrigues published on Facebook must have been after the police station. There appears to be around eleven people with him.
They “celebrated” the confirmation of a police investigation into iFreeX by eating dinner at McDonalds.
High rollers this lot.
For me, even if nothing happens, just the police shows their face in a MLM reunion, it really damage the image of the company.
The police really punish Sann Rodrigues. (Ironically, the police didn’t do anything illegal, like the MLM guys, but we know what really happens in both sides)
Do you want to invest in a company that is suspect to run a Ponzi scheme, that no one know who runs it and probably is the Sann Rodrigues, a guy with various suspect schemes, like Telexfree and others. And now even the police goes in a reunion?
If you really go ahead, you NEED to lose your money.
I really think.. Sann Rodrigues, go to home. Let’s clean your ferrari and try to win honest money… Not everyone in justice is stupid… The more crimes you commit, the more chance you give to get caught and lose everything..
You need to be really stupid because after this happens in Brazil, you continue and probably will broke one more piramidy scheme. Your good house and car is better than a jail in USA 😀
video today sann rodrigues
translate to english
It’s someway funny/weird :/ after their “arrest” 2 days after the event they made a video celebrating an “invasion” into Europe, conferences in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Russia :/ – another Brazilian scam “knocking on our door” – Sann Rodrigues runs this fraud after the Telexfree.
They really should rename iFreeX to “The Sann Rodrigues defense fund”.
Can’t wait for the TelexFree civil action to resume. Hurry up criminal proceedings…
Sann Rodrigues is now considered a fugitive from Brazilian justice. After that GAEP/Paulinia episode, an order preventing Sann from leaving Brazil was issued.
The order was based on accusations of money laundering and tax evasion, amongst other charges. He was added to the SINPI system (“sistema nacional de pessoas procuradas e impedidas” or “national system of wanted and prevented people”).
Nevertheless, Sann left Brazil and fleed for the US (not clear whether he did it through other country or directly from Brazil, illegaly). More details should hit Brazilian media soon.
In a online conference held on Feb-25 (dailymotion.com/video/x2i4o73_sann-rodrigues-chama-delegado-de-paulinia-de-vagabundo_webcam), a clearly very upset Sann says he’s in the US because “there’s no justice in Brazil”.
He states that the sheriff was paid to go there and “harass” them and that he was led to a trap in Paulinia.
He instruct his minions to not held public conferences anymore: they should do it only in small groups, in house meetings. He says “Brazil is not ready for such MLM revolution”.
He goes on: in case authorities question you, you must tell them you are just “trainning people” to sell products.
Well, now comes the waiting game. Let’s see how long until they put Rodrigues under arrest. That is, if he’s not left the US by now.
Well, that’s what the Interpol is for. 😉
Well that’s interesting, considering he fled the US because of the injunction against him committing fraud here in the first place.
So he’s shafted in the US because of TelexFree and now shafted in Brazil because of iFreeX.
Fraud seems to follow Rodrigues around like shit on a stick. Nowhere to run now son…
Comments on Rodriguez’s Facebook page also suggest iFreeX has stopped paying people.
Watch the scam implode now that Rodrigues had fled Brazil.
They’ve stopped paying off people for about two months now.
ALELO, the company that issued the pre-paid cards, have blocked them all after anonymous complaints. Word on the streets is that Rodrigues has been using “left over” cards from another of his scams and that just a few of his minions were allowed do withdraw money just to show it off and attract more people.
But weeks before the old cards being blocked, probably due to the lack of ponzi money, they’ve been telling people that 2PayNet (which supposedly also belongs to Rodrigues) has been having some “technical difficulties”…
They’ve also cancelled all “free accounts”, because most people was using them to steal stolen money… What a mess…
Now they’ve announced (just yesterday) they are going to send people MasterCard cards at no costs and that “a revolution is comming”.
In a meeting held yesterday, Rodrigues kept playing dumb and telling people who asks about the onwer of iFreeX that “the owner is you, all affiliates, you own the company”.
One can’t wait to see him behind bars.
I can’t wait to see that conartist behind bars!
o well, he extradited himself to the US, without having the US and brazil wrangle over him.
if sann rodrigues, is looking for ‘justice’, he will surely find it in the US.
that mcdonald celebration, in brazil was, shall we say, premature?
sann is definitely a shining example of ‘intelligence incorporated’, seeing that he ran off to the US, where he ran away from, to begin with!!
dumbness seems to be a common talent in ponzi players?
Given that it’s now revealed that Sann got his passport confiscated by GAEP after that visit to “downtown”, if he said he’s in the US, he was lying. He was stuck in Brazil until he managed to smuggle himself out of the country and make his way back to the US.
behindmlm.com/companies/telexfree/sanderley-rodrigues-arrested-for-visa-fraud
I’m thinking he left the state he was banned in and then jumped on a plane with his US passport, before anyone was none the wiser.
Or he might have fled to a neighboring country and then used his US passport.
If he only has a green card, he wouldn’t have a US passport.
I wonder if he smuggled himself to a neighboring country that has a Brazilian embassy and falsely claimed “lost passport”, got a temp replacement, and flew to the US with that. I doubt he dared to buy a fake passport as it wouldn’t match his green card.
Ah ok, I thought he had dual-cit like Wanzeler (I’m not overly familiar with US immigration).
However he did it, Rodrigues pretty much banned himself from entering Brazil in the future, and now he’s buggered in the US too.
Game over and well played US regulators, well played.
A foreign citizen (non-US citizen) can apply for permanent residency in the US, and become what’s known as a “resident alien”. The “ID” for a resident alien is colloquially “green card” (even though it’s NOT GREEN any more, hadn’t been green for decades).
There are several types of green cards, some of family reunions, some for brothers / parents / kids, some for business (critical type of labor experts), some for investment, and even a few special refugee / witness protection visas.
When Sann travels, say to Brazil, presumably he still has his Brazilian passport, so his official travel ID is STILL his Brazilian passport.
Within the US, he probably got a Mass state ID/Driver’s License and never had to show anything else.
When he reenters the US, he’s supposed to produce both passport AND resident alien card. We don’t know what he produced, do we?
No airline in Europe is going to let him on a plane without a passport, IMHO, but he doesn’t need a visa to come to the US if he has a green card. Which was why I speculated he may have smuggled himself to another country and may have obtained a Brazilian passport in his name by falsely claiming he lost it travelling.
Wanzeler was in the country far longer and he probably naturalized and got his US citizenship and most of his family probably also naturalized too. But you’re technically supposed to give up other citizenships, but it’s not always required.
Apparently Wanzeler kept his Brazilian passport up to date. Wonder if he knew it’s needed one day, or he just likes keeping dual citizenship?
Operação Mintaka desarticula esquema fraudulento de marketing multinível (PT-BR)
pf.gov.br/agencia/noticias/2016/06/operacao-mintaka-desarticula-esquema-fraudulento-de-marketing-multinivel
PF faz operação no ES contra esquema de pirâmide financeira (PT-BR)
gazetaonline.com.br/_conteudo/2016/06/noticias/economia/3950742-pf-faz-operacao-no-es-contra-esquema-de-piramide-financeira.html
Esquema de pirâmide financeira é alvo da PF em ES, PB, MT e BA (PT-BR)
g1.globo.com/espirito-santo/noticia/2016/06/esquema-de-piramide-financeira-e-alvo-da-pf-em-es-pb-mt-e-ba.html
Thanks for the heads up Bernando, much appreciated!