James Merrill denied bail, Carlos Wanzeler surfaces in Brazil
A bail hearing for James Merrill, co-owner of the $1 billion dollar TelexFree Ponzi scheme, was held last Friday in Massachusetts. Taking the matter under advisement, Magistrate Judge David Hennessy made a decision yesterday to keep Merrill in custody.
Citing that ‘the Government has met their burden‘ in establishing why Merrill should not be granted bail, Judge Hennessy ordered he be ‘remanded to the custody of the US Marshals‘ until further notice.
Supporting evidence provided by the government against Merrill (right) included
- a binder containing letters from TelexFree affiliates
- phonecall logs
- a corporate profile of TelexFree Canada Inc. and
- evidence collected from the Facebook page of “TelexFree Canada”
The nature of the phonecall logs or what relevance TelexFree Canada has to the case against Merrill were not disclosed.
In related news, further information has been revealed detailing the arrest of Katia Wanzeler (TelexFree co-owner Carlos Wanzeler’s wife).
On the 14th of April the US Attorneys Office learned that Katia Wanzeler was ‘booked on a flight from John F. Kennedy airport in New York to Brazil at 9:30pm (that) evening. American airlines confirmed the ticket was one-way and purchased with cash “from someone in Brazil”.
Arguing that this was evidence enough that it was now “impractical” that a subpoena alone would ensure Wanzeler appear as a material-witness in the criminal case against her husband.
The US Attorneys Office asked that they be permitted to arrest Wanzeler and have her ‘held until she is called as a witness‘.
Katia Wanzeler is of particular interest to the US Attorney’s Office due to
- “significant sums of money” being deposited from TelexFree bank accounts into personal accounts belonging to her
- her lying to agents who raided her home on April 17th as to the whereabouts of her husband (Katia told agents Carlos Wanzeler was staying in a hotel, when in reality he had fled the US for Canada by car, with the intention of then flying to Brazil)
- her assistance to James Merrill regarding the withdrawal of over $27 million dollars in checks (one check for $2 million was made out to “Katia B. Wanzeler”)
Granted under seal, as it was likely that if Katia Wanzeler found out her arrest was imminent she’d try to flee covertly like her husband, the US Attorneys Office got their arrest warrant and Katia was picked up at the airport that night.
Derek Bergman, a special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations, filed this report:
On May 14th, 2014, at approximately 9:00 pm, the defendant Katia Wanzeler arrived at Terminal 8 of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York.
While boarding American Airlines flight no. 973 destined for Rio de Janeiro, Brazi, via the jet-way, Customs and Border Protection conducted an outbound currency exam of the defendant.
During the exam, the defendant signed the CBP 909 inventory form “Katia Wanzeler”.
Following the exam, Katia Wanzeler was arrested at the airport by HSI agents who were in the vicinity.
Katia was denied bail the following day May 15th and ordered to be transferred to Massachusetts. Wanzeler was purportedly “in tears” as she was led from the court.
Meanwhile her husband, Carlos Wanzeler (right with Katia), has finally surfaced in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo.
TelexFree and Wanzeler have recently hired attorney Antonio Carlos de Almeida Castro to represent them in Brazil. Castro, who also goes by the name “Kakay”, appears to have a history representing defendants in high-profile criminal cases.
Arguing that Carlos Wanzeler fleeing the US before an arrest warrant was issued, Castro yesterday told Brazilian media
(Carlos Wanzeler) did not come here (a) fugitive, and (he) is in Espírito Santo. I have a meeting (with him) in Vitória tomorrow [Wednesday] and I imagine he will participate.
There has been no request (to arrest) Wanzeler (in Brazil), (and) no criminal charges (have been filed) against the founders of Telexfree in Brazil (either).
Carlos did not address the arrest of Wanzeler’s partner James Merrill or his wife Katia, but was quick to inform the media that
(Wanzeler) is Brazilian born, is (a) resident in Espírito Santo (and there’s) no chance of extradition.
Brazilian media outlet Globo contacted Brazilian Federal Police to enquire whether or not US authorities have requested their assistance in tracking down Wanzeler, but thus far had received no response.
The recent hiring of Castro by Wanzeler appears to be a direct response to US authorities thwarting his wife’s escape plans. Addressing his firms priorities in the case against his client, Castro went on to tell Globo:
The defense’s priority is to work for the release of the Brazilian. “(Katia Wanzeler) is stuck and is not accused of anything at all.” (Carlos) also said that is exchanging information with the Telexfree lawyers in the United States.
Whether or not Castro is aware that Katia Wanzeler has been remanded in custody until she can appear as a witness in the case against her husband is unclear.
As the case progresses, one would imagine sooner or latter the issue of why Carlos Wanzeler is content to hide out in Brazil, despite being fully aware an arrest warrant has been issued against him and his partner in crime and wife are behind bars, will be raised by a Judge in a US court.
Given the circumstances of Wanzeler’s fleeing, his subsequent disappearance and reluctance to turn himself in, it’s unlikely to play out well for him when the time comes.
Looking forward, the SEC have agreed to a proposed extension by TelexFree that gives them until June 20th to reply to the civil case filed against them. I’ve yet to see a date set for the Grand Jury trial in TelexFree’s criminal case.
Footnote: My thanks to Don @ ASDUpdates for providing the court case files cited in this article.
Probably along the nature of character witness, like “we believe this guy is so honest he won’t flee even though his partner did and may have paid his wife to do so”
I’m curious to know who the calls were between. Would almost be willing to put money on calls being connected to Brazil.
Hell, I’m almost convinced Wanzeler was holding the camera in those Carlos Costa car vidoes from a week or so back.
You’d think a lawyer would at least keep his own story straight. If he said his client is NOT a fugitive then why answer the question about extradition at all?
I could potentially see the Brazil Feds arrest Wanzeler… but not right now. The Brazilian courts needs to finish dismantling Ympactus (and silence Costas once and for all), then arrest Wanzeler as mastermind (and flip Costas to save his own hide).
THEN there could be cross-border co-op between DOJ and Brazilian Federal police, where some sort of receivership is setup, one for Brazil, one for US and rest of the world, then some sort of division of what’s left of TelexFree.
Doubt that would happen though. Too much politics. What this needs is RESOLUTION, and Wanzeler managed to add another layer of confusion. Only tells you he doesn’t give a **** about Telexfree members. If he wants to deal with the problem he’d have stayed and vowed to sell everything he owned to make things right.
But when pressured, that’s when the TRUE character shows. And we have seen the ugly side of Wanzeler: leave wife and biz partner behind.
In his interview to the Brazilian media, Castro repeated Carlos Costa lie from last night’s video that Katia Wanzeler purchased a round trip ticket opposed to the one-way ticket cited by authorities.
Congratulation!!! The federals are reading your site and you are in the process case!!! See this file on page 147 – 151
Hold up, that’s a class-action lawsuit filed against TelexFree by affiliates.
Having stolen millions of dollars and being able to pay for the best lawyers, it’s rather silly that TelexFree’s management would accuse the prosecutors of lying.
If there were any lies or inconsistencies, it would give TelexFree an out if they exposed these alleged falsehoods in court. They’d have guys drooling and begging to represent them. Prosecutors don’t go through with cases until they’re certain they can win.
It just goes to show how stupid these guys are. You run a massive scheme and steal millions, destroying families and crippling local economies, amassing many hundreds of times times more money than most people will ever see in their entire lives, and you make no moves to escape or buy a new identity and disappear.
Any of them could have run away to a small Central American village, one without running water, a place where people make maybe 10 dollars a week. Buy up all the business, effectively employing everyone. Bring competent doctors and medicine, bring dentists, import better food, improve the people’s lives. Nobody in those towns would ever sell you out. It would be dangerous to even come looking for you.
You’d live out the rest of your life like a king, surrounded by people who don’t care who you are, where you came from, or what you did, but they just know that you stopped their kids from going hungry. You clothed them, you paid them. And you even gave grandpa a new set of teeth.
I can hardly wait to see what all they blew the money on. It just goes to show that you don’t need to be smart to run a ponzi. Just needs a ton of promoters, a whole lot of affinity fraud, a pinch of shilling from a so called consultant and a little help from a crooked lawyer.
Maybe we should ask how did *they* know it’s a roundtrip ticket… unless they bought it?
Carlos Costa YouTube video in 3…2…1…
…
Maybe the round trip meant going to and back from the airport.
I believe Carlos will clear that up soon by claiming they meant the airplane would circle the airport one time in Brazil before it landed.
That was the initial plan, but the $350 millions frozen in Brazil interrupted that plan. 🙂
Another problem with that plan is that it will attract attention from DEA. They’re constantly looking out for villages in Central America with improved lifestyles and imported medical services. The village would have acted as a “magnet”.
I am intrigued by this class action lawsuit. The filing seems well put together. I don’t think that they will get money out of the TF bankruptcy estate since IMO the bankruptcy will be stopped or taken over by the authorities.
But, they are suing everyone under the sun including promoters, TF lawyers, and payment processors and, if the case is handled by competent and persistent plaintiff laywers, there might be some settlements down the road to be divided amongst the members of the class. I think that someone had mentioned this before on this forum.
Which, of course, begs the question for myself and other jaded affiliates: Is it a good idea to become a class member in this lawsuit? I would imagine that there would be some interference with becoming part of the claims process that IMO the authorities will eventually set up.
But the class action lawsuit goes after individuals and companies that are not currently being pursued by the authorities. I think that there may be something to think about…
Whether the estate is administered as a bankruptcy, receivership or otherwise there’s a really large pot of money here. This is the 2nd of 3rd attorney that’s filed a complaint which not incidentally seeks class representative status for its clients.
There is easily more work involved than any one attorney or firm could handle so these filings are mostly attorneys using their clients’ damages as a pretext to get in line for positions as attorneys for the class .
Their clients (putative class representatives) get very little for their trouble so they are in a way being used. What is really going on is that the attorneys want to obtained for themselves a piece of the pie and at least for now there is still a chance that it could be piece of a very big pie.
Speculatively; A “Class” may never be able to sue Telexfree itself if its under Receivership or bankruptcy protection but it might successfully argue that distributions made by the Telexfree estate are subject to attachment by the class.
In this way the Class might be able to effectively ‘step in front of” the intended recipients (the estate creditors).
If the class can’t sue A then sue B who is entitled to receive money from A instead.
This question will not need to be addressed for a long time. A person may have the right to opt out of a class but this is not always the case.
The putative class attorneys obviously want to represent as many clients as possible in one big block but objections to this may arise. Sub classes are sometimes formed and/or opt out provisions are included.
….also opt-in provisions too.
My impression is a general “NO”, but I haven’t looked at many similar lawsuits either.
I looked at the James “Cal” Cunningham class action for Zeek Rewards members in North Carolina, and the “Belsome et al”. Lawyers will often be fighting for their own rights to get a piece of the cake rather than fighting for their clients’ interests.
One of them is currently fighting for the payment method = “should the Receiver be allowed to pay directly to the victims, or should he pay directly to the lawyer and let the lawyer distribute the funds to his clients?”. The last method will make it easier for the lawyer to collect his piece of the pie.
The NC class action seemed to based on a similar idea = “collect a piece of the pie”.
I haven’t really looked at the current Telexfree class action lawsuit. It’s a “healthy read”, with 520 paragraphs / 60 pages. That’s something I normally can read in the winter, “when the days are shorter and women wear more clothes”.
Wanzeler is not a fugitive, he just happened to drive to Canada under cover of night to catch a flight to Brazil…
EVENT Thursday : online Discussion with WSJ
http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2014/05/20/trouble-at-telexfree-unraveling-the-litigation/
I wonder how many of these people taking part in this class action suit read BehindMLM and scoffed at it before TelexFree got shut down?
Kind of ironic that they now use a couple of articles on this website to prove that it was a scam. If only they’d paid attention before investing their money.
At least it would have been something! They should have run sooner. It’s like ASD and Zeek all over again. They steal the money, but all they do is blow it on luxury cars, fine dining, and toys that the feds are just gonna take from them.
If you get caught running, at the very least you know you tried to get away and you had a chance. The end result of these court cases is going to put these guys away for a while. All they can do is delay the inevitable.
You are painting this with far too broad a brush. Most people can not afford to pay attorneys out of pocket so contingency fees are a time tested and standard method of paying attorneys.
Otherwise the damaged party would have no way to bring suit. A bit of skepticism is fine but your take on this borders on uniformed paranoia.
Too early to tell. I personally, with NO experience in anything other than analysis, would recommend wait another 6 months and see how the authorities handle the estate.
In fact, I would not be surprised to see DOJ file further TROs on every last bit of whatever Wanzeler assets DOJ can reach, which is probably not that much.
And DOJ/SEC has not precluded filing more lawsuits against more individuals involved. And if a trustee was appointed, s/he can file more lawsuits too for clawbacks and punitive damages. (remember Irving Picard, who’s Madoff’s trustee? He filed lawsuits for BILLIONS of dollars).
Keep in mind that the class action lawsuit will likely to be put on hold pending outcome of the criminal and civil investigation on the DOJ/SEC side. Add the international angle and you can expect this case to drag out for YEARS (as in 4-7 years).
I say wait another 6 months at least. The class action lawsuit personally is just a trial balloon to see if any one affected will pay them to go away, and lawyer can get 1/3 of that for little more than filing that lawsuit, mostly based on existing bits of news.
Not sure if it’s the same event, but Jordan “Ponzitracker” Maglich has a talk at the same time?
http://t.co/6R6dfAChYg
Same. It’s that SpreeCast is done by the WS Journal.
Thank you for answering. My initial hunch regarding being part of a class action law suit was a no. For me, it seemed that there will be little benefit and I would be quite bitter if the proceeds from a successful lawsuit would primarily go to some greedy lawyers.
However, it would be a “bummer” if I was not part of the class and they ended up getting a nice settlement from one of the non-TF parties such as one of the payment processors.
Even a small payout from that lawsuit would be cool because right now the payment processors and some of the other defendants are not being accused of wrongdoing by the SEC and they would not be part of any potential future receivership.
Of course, this is all too early. Right now the potential money pie seems quite big and tasty, albeit not yet reachable. If this pie continues to be inaccessible or runs out too fast, I think the lawyers will jump ship and any class action lawsuits will just fizzle away.
That wasn’t mentioned as an alternative either?
My general impression of the few relevant class action lawsuits I have looked at is that they don’t deliver what people expect them to deliver. I identified 2 examples.
James “Cal” Cunningham marketed his lawsuit through local newspapers, e.g. “I have a different idea that will give people more money faster (I will sue Paul Burks and the management)”. I didn’t find that “brilliant idea” on his class action website, I only found an attorney trying to get a piece of the cake. I haven’t found that “brilliant idea” later either.
The other class action I looked at was “Johnny Belsome et al”. Last time I checked, the attorney was arguing about the distribution method (“send the money directly to me”).
When it comes to joining a class action lawsuit or using an attorney then people must use their own brain. A lawsuit should preferrably deliver something they’re interested in, something achieveable.
IIRC, the receiver basically gave them the finger, as in “I have no obligation to collect what’s owed you by sending money to you so you can get your cut”.
I very much doubt this. Barratry is illegal or contrary to the code of ethics in almost all jurisdictions. But if you have proof….bring it on.
Here you are talking about contingency attorneys? class action attorneys? How do you think such an attorney is paid?
I will tell you. He gets a large piece of what he is able to collect and does so on a contingency basis Did you think a class action attorney bills 150,000 individual class members or that they pay him by the month? zzzzz no.
The attorney(s) involved foot the cost of litigation and in return get a large share of any amount collected. They take the risk, they foot the bill and if they are successful they make a profit….if not they spent a ton of money, years of effort and get nothing.
The Belsome v Receiver clash is unrelated to formation of a class or to any likely class action. HOWEVER the way that is developing is a cautionary tale that people should be aware of…which is….once you sign a contingency fee or straight agreement you are on the hook, so do not enter into one without knowing what you are doing and having some rudimentary idea of what the course of events will be.
Secondarily Norway, Belsome’s attorneys may well be due the relief they seek, and you do not yet know with any certainty whatsoever that Belsome et al will not form the nucleus of a class action as they believed would be the case when they signed on with their attorney.
Their class action petition is stayed. The fact that the Receiver wants to cut Belsome’s attorneys out of the claims process may or may not be upheld and as I recall its under appeal.
Generally I think that is what NAZ was doing when he asked the question. I doubt he needs to be reminded to “use his own brain.”
You are right that it plays out that way but its nearly unprecedented that a party’s attorney should be denied the ability to file a proof of claim on behalf of his client(s).
I see both sides on this issue, while believing that Bell is correctly administering the estate.
Hey Oz! you’re famous!
Pay close attention 00:44:00 – 00:46:00; he quotes you in the instance 45 minutes: He says gov’t agencies used you’re blog as a case-material for trial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtBd-KFSP7g
ps1:and yes, I switched from sitcoms to telexfree’s videos.
ps2:congrats on your JD.
Hello fellas,
well it so easy to hire the best lawyer in Brazil when you have all the money in the world to burn, it is impossible to bring him back to USA… period. There are so much money involve and a tremendous political corruption patch to protect him.
The other side of the investigation Should concentrate their efforts over all the top promoters that still here in America, Saan , dela rosa, Faith and crosby are the tip of the iceberg, there are hundreds of pimp/leaders the manage millions of dollars if no problem at all each one of them make easy over than 3 Millions, and where is the money???
Believe it there is a lot cash hidden in a lot places even in their houses …I know is stupid but is true….well lets go hunt those people about 20% of the top promoters they are deeply involve and they know exactly where is the money, how they laundry exchange thousands of credits for money even given credits here and get the money overseas.
What about the times that leaders whent to telexfree corporate office to buy credits paying in money and the office generating “extra illegal credits” in the system!!! where is that money????
If they said was 1.4 billion dollars scam that value is the official money and I bet there are another Billion spread all over the world. Follow the money trial, look closed over the leaders in their offices they still operating they just change flags.
Oz is legend… 🙂
I believe this latest round of “The SEC are using BehindMLM, see they have no case!”, stems from illiterate Brazilians reading that affiliate launched class-action suite. I’ve also seen some Portuguese TelexFree affiliate blog articles going on about it too.
These are the same guys that were crapping on about five Judges and the ten holy commandments that were being discussed and decided upon in the bankruptcy case.
It seems that, despite becoming a laughing stock, they haven’t gotten any better at comprehension. A quick look at who filed the case would reveal the class-action BehindMLM is cited in is not a regulatory filing.
It certainly is as you say, Oz. Castilho starts by saying he saw that at the KCC website, where the affiliate class suite is.
Castilho seems to be among the smartest and best informed of the TelexFree zombie YT commentator folk, but still is very low standard by any measure besides their own.
This was unexpected… the President of a bank TelexFree used to pump millions through, is none other than James Merril’s brother.
Talk about keeping the money laundering all in the family…
The bank’s defense is that they shut TelexFree’s accounts down “within months of them being opened”.
This would appear to be in line with what other banks did… but to date no other bank’s President has been subpoenaed.
I think the Merrill family link is going to be revealing.
And I bet he’s going to wind up rueing the day he turned a blind eye to his brother’s Ponzi activities.
I suppose next we’ll find out Carlos Costa’s mum owns the bank…
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/21/galvin-subpoenas-worcester-bank-president-telexfree-investigation/IcSPcSwQAMD5TDpFb01fcP/story.html
Also the grand jury sitting for Katia Wanzeler is today (where she will have to testify as a witness). Not sure if we’ll find out how that went.
It is unexpected, but I don’t believe any rabbit will come out of that hat. At least at first sight, this man seems much more wise and reputable than his disgraced brother.
Apparently they only want to find to what extent he knew about his brother’s Ponzi, at least for now:
Source – http://www.wbjournal.com/article/20140521/NEWS01/140529983/1002
Update, according to an emergency hearing request filed, turns out Katia Wanzeler has not been transported to Massachusetts.
Is something going on behind the scenes?
Wanzeler’s lawyers are claiming they have no idea why their client wasn’t transported and have asked for an emergency hearing today (22nd) or tommorow (23rd) to find out what’s going on. They’ve also requested the court order Wanzeler transported to Massachusetts ASAP so she can appear before the jury.
No doubt they’ll be wanting to ship her off to Brazil as soon as she’s done.
Personally I find it rather strange the US Marshal didn’t follow the grand jury subpoena directive.
I still believe in the THEORY that Carlos Costa is more involved in all of this. He keeps promoting Ympactus as if the Titanic didn’t hit an iceberg in June 2013 in Brazil and more recently in the U.S.
He acts like he’s sailing along, until all the bad guys get out of the way (jail) and he can then run the company with the NEW company, probably all from Brazil. No more partners in the U.S.?
What are the chances that:
Carlos Costa cooperated with Brazilian authorities in order to change the scheme from illegal to legal? Something that may have required turning in a few “crooks” that were taking the money at the top, namely, Wanzeler, Sann, the other U.S. promoters?
What about the top Brazilian promoters that were making tens of thousands of dollars each month? NOT ONE of them has been charged with anything or has had his or her assets and bank accounts judicially frozen like San Rodrigues and others have. Why not?
Who’s sleeping at the wheel and not prosecuting them in Brazil? Is it because US$350M is sitting in the coffers collecting interest?
IF Katia is allowed to return to Brazil (and all the other Brazilian insiders and top promoters holding Brazilian passports – many illegals in the U.S. anyway – can simply leave) then is James Merril the only guy to take the fall?
Merril was the owner of a cleaning company, not necessarily a Bernie Madoff by training or intelligence level, I assume. Chances are that Merril simply became guilty by association with the Brazilian gangsters/promoters.
The money was good and the TelexFree lawyer allegedly said that the company WAS legal? Where is that lawyer now anyway?
There are probably more than dozens of pawns in this whole TelexFree story – many of whom are not yet charged with any crimes. How many have already fled the country with the money they made from recruiting commissions?
According to recent news, Merril’s brother, John Merril, from Fidelity Bank? has some explaining to do about the millions that went through his bank.
Interesting. Wonder if DOJ wants an extra day or two to prepare actual charges against her, hmmm? Right now she’s held on material witness warrant, but if they file additional charges, such as racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering… That’s going to blow any attempt to grand jury her out of the water.
I can see some interesting moves. If Katia appeared in front of grand jury she’ll likely be dismissed or her lawyers will try to post bond for her. I think DOJ was indeed preparing charges to hold her pending further action. They ain’t gonna let her near any sort of transportation unless it belongs to US Marshals.
That’s my line of thinking too. That the US Attorneys Office are up to something.
Unfortunately US Marshals not complying with court orders is far beyond my legal experience. So pending further information being made public, I’m not really confident making sense of it either way.
The article from famous Brazilian lawyer mentions that Carlos Wanzeler had a sex change…just kidding. Whoever quote his lawyer said that Carlos Wanzeler is a Brazilian female. LOL
Translation: He (Carlos) is a female Brazilian, has residence in Espirito Santo. There is no chance of extradition”, says the lawyer…
The lawyer’s defense is that Carlos left BEFORE there was a warrant for his arrest and NOT AFTER. That must be why he left through Canada with his kid, right? How long was he in Canada? Enough time to grab some cash and take off for Brazil?
What are the chances that Wanzeler KNEW that he was going to be served and took off before it happened? Who picked him up at the airport? Why did he not leave for Brazil through JFK like his wife tried to. The other defense is that Katia is not being charged with anything criminal? Wow.
And if they’ve filed stuff under seal, to what end?
Carlos Wanzeler is hiding out in Brazil and appears unlikely to return to the US any time soon, at least not voluntarily.
Can stuff be filed under seal regarding co-operation between the US and Brazil? In that sense I can see the need to file under seal to limit Carlos reacting to what is going down (escaping again).
Otherwise I can’t see the need for secrecy, they’ve already got Merrill and Katia… who would they be trying to keep their filings from (even if only temporarily).
That is of course if anything has been filed under seal…
Well his wife was instructed to lie about it, that’s evidence enough.
The car Wanzeler drove up to Canada was brought back to the US by TelexFree affiliates (suranme “Nunes”, can’t be bothered looking up their first names), so he was being assisted by some of his top affiliates up there.
Maybe that’s what he was up to in Canada over those unaccounted for days…
“What? Carlos Wanzeler… no there’s nobody by that name here. I am Mrs. Caroline Wanzeler, you can’t extradite me!”
Or… or… MAYBE Wanzeler’s wife got a haircut with bleached tips, and was the one who escaped to Canada with their daughter…
And only now US authorities have just realised they apprehended Carlos Wanzeler trying to flee New York in a wig posing as Katia – That’s why “she” wasn’t transferred.
That explains the US Marshal’s (lack of) action AND the lawyer’s “Carlos Wanzeler is female” statement.
Dude was totally oblivious and then someone with a vagina and cheap haircut rocks up claiming to be Carlos. How’s he to know any better?
*CONSPRIACY THEORY HEAD ‘SPLODE!*
(The above being reposted on a Brazilian TelexFree blog as 100% plausible fact in 3…2…1…)
What’s more likely is US Marshals did transport her, but her transfer was “under seal” and her Boston attorneys were NOT informed of her arrival. And her attorneys went on a fishing expedition, trying to push the court to reveal where’s their client.
You mean Carlotta, right?
Carolina sounds more Portugesey… Carlotta? That’s sounds like British royalty…
So that’s why she waived the ID hearing, eh? 😉
See, it all fits!
US Attorneys Office, you’re welcome.
Considering that the material filed along with the Under Seal material had to do with investigating Katia’s activities and whereabouts I might hazard a guess that the underseal material made mention of how the information was gathered and by whom.
My premise is that ever since she went with Merrill to withdraw money or when her husband left town she has been under surveillance.
Or rather Spanish/Portuguese royalty. Carlota Joaquina, Queen-consort of Portugal, actually ruled the Kingdom with hubby John VI from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, during the Napoleonic French Invasions.
She was ugly as a woman can be, a complete hag, I spent several minutes laughing my guts away after seeing his horrendous portrait at Queluz Palace years ago.
I guess the name perfectly fits Carlos Wanzeler in a wig – “Carlota Van Zeller, yours truly…”
So… Looks like dots are being connected. Wanzeler contacts Canadian TF saying “hey, I need some money to go to Brazil and hire me the most expensive lawyer money can buy”. Then someone deliver the money and brings Wanzeler’s car back to the US.
Sounds very plausible to me.
Man, I can’t wait for all of this to come out and be presented in a cohesive fashion.
I can see several years from now on CNBC:
“On this episode of American Greed…”
I love that show 🙂
Hahahahahahahaha…and I know that I’m going to laugh even harder when I see it come up in a TF Facebook post as being legit! Hell yaa!!!
Unfortunately, I think this is true and it will be hard to bring Carlos Wanzeler back to the US for justice unless, for some reason, he feels that it serves his interests (ex. choice between a notorious Brazilian prison compared to American prison).
Brazil has refused to extradite criminals before. Just look at the case of Joe Conforte, wealthy owner of the Mustang Ranch, the first legal brothel in the US. According to Wikipedia:
According to American Greed (a CNBC TV show), he is living it up in Brazil, thumbing his nose at the authorities. The big difference is that Conforte was not being investigated and did not victimize anyone in Brazil, whereas this may not be true of Carlos Wanzeler. Also, the type of crime may make a difference: bankruptcy fraud in the case of Joe Conforte vs Wire fraud in the case of Carlos Wanzeler.
And now Merrill’s brother John, a bank president, is being investigated:
(Ozedit: See comment #37)