iPayout hint at TelexFree money laundering?
Late yesterday we reported on iPayout disabling the ewallet services they were providing to TelexFree.
Since then, some interesting developments have come to light.
Compare the original message iPayout were displaying to TelexFree affiliates yesterday:
To the message the payment processor is now showing:
As highlighted above, two new additions to the “reasons” iPayout provide are appearing; TelexFree “terminating” the ewallet services and the violation of anti-money laundering policies.
At the time of publication, iPayout have not made any public statement indicating whether or not they’ve been dragged into a US-based money laundering investigation into TelexFree. Outside of the hints iPayout drop above, I’m also unaware of any official regulatory money laundering investigation into the company.
Rwanda has previously announced it has found evidence of TelexFree engaging in money laundering, and Public Prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Acre have aired the possibility of raising money laundering and embezzlement charges against the company.
i-Payout wrote to BehindMLM last October, seeking to “clarify” any misconceptions about TelexFree after we raised questions about them handling the company’s money.
At the time, i-Payout assured us that after conducting ‘complete due diligence on TelexFree’, that they had found the company to be ‘compliant with all US laws‘.
I’m not sure you guys have seen or commented on this, but here it goes:
SEC Halts TelexFree Pyramid Scheme
[…]
In addition to TelexFREE, the Commission also named eight TelexFREE officers and promoters: James M. Merrill, Carlos N. Wanzeler, Steven M. Labriola, Joseph H. Craft, Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Santiago de la Rosa, Randy N. Crosby, and Faith R. Sloan (collectively, “Defendants”). Each has been charged with multiple violations of federal securities laws. In addition to the charges, the Commission also announced it had obtained an asset freeze securing millions of dollars in funds.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanmaglich/2014/04/17/sec-halts-telexfree-pyramid-scheme/
This is an interesting change under the current circumstances.
i-Payout is providing the wrong types of information for most normal users. They’re sending people into a dead end road.
Info #1:
“Merchant account disabled” + 3 potential reasons.
Info #2:
“Merchant account disabled” + 5 potential reasons.
+ “Check your back office”
+ “Call TelexFree’s customer support”
None of the options they suggest will give any meaningful results. The options are dead end roads, leading to more confusion and frustration.
They’re actually telling people that they don’t have any control over the funds in the e-Wallets, the merchant itself controls the funds.
They don’t offer any information either, it will be up to the merchant to inform the people that have been affected.
Here’s some Alexa statistics for globalewallet.com, the ewallets used by i-Payout.
KEYWORDS
Upstream Sites
More than half of the visitors came from TelexFree.
Darn, that’s like a who’s who of shady schemes.
Three cheers for Big Data how did we ever survive without Him.