To understand how Jim Merrill became ensnared in this mess, one must understand Jim Merrill, the human being.
James Merill’s March 17th sentencing memorandum reads like a list of things someone who heads up a Ponzi scheme stands to lose if they’re caught.
What should be a deterrent to other Ponzi fraudsters is instead presented as compelling reasoning for Merrill to be given a feather-weight sentence.
Merrill’s attorney is seeking a sentence of no longer than one year and one day. That, they deem, is sufficient punishment for heading up the largest and most financially devastating MLM fraud to date.
It is a tragedy that a person like Jim Merrill finds himself facing a prison sentence.
Every person to encounter him for any meaningful moment of time quickly discovers that he is truly an extraordinary human being.
The kind of father who puts family above all else and makes sure he is a full participant in his children’s lives, a husband who is actually a caring and attentive partner to his wife, an uncle who has a significant impact on the lives of his nieces and nephews, the neighbor you watch jog with his rescue dog every day and trust with the key to your home, the coach that every parent wants to coach their child because he treats all his players equally and knows that imparting invaluable life lessons is more important than winning a youth sports game, the friend who lends a genuine ear, who earnestly cares about you and your family, who travels across the country to visit, console and ultimately make a video of a dying, ALS-stricken friend as a gift to his then-young children, who is there to help sift through debris after a fire destroys your home, or makes sure another friend has meals and emotional support while battling a terminal cancer diagnosis, and yet so humble and genuine that he is universally loved by those who know him.
The stories of Jim’s selflessness, humility, generosity, compassion, and his genuine care for family and friends, littered throughout the 50-plus letters of support submitted to the Court, are nothing short of overwhelming.
James Merrill sounds like a swell guy, but none of that changes the fact he was involved in and, along with Carlos Wanzeler, at the center of a $3 billion Ponzi scheme.
One of the key arguments presented by Merrill’s attorney is that he was “the voice of change”.
“[W]hen TelexFree was set up, Mr. Merrill did not intend that TelexFree be a pyramid scheme …”.
Consistent with his character, amply illustrated in the letters submitted to the Court, Jim began TelexFree with the intention of helping people.
Through identifying Carlos Wanzeler and Carlos Costa as “the real decision makers”, Merrill shirks his part in the setting up and operation of TelexFree.
“You ruined my life.”
This is what James Merrill wrote to Carlos Wanzeler after the government executed search warrants at TelexFree.
In late 2013 Merrill “contemplated resigning” (after he’d made millions and TelexFree sped towards collapse), but a MLM attorney Jeff Babner told him
his resignation would not relieve him of any past liability and the better course was to stay on so he could try to “right the ship” going forward.
The problem is TelexFree was a Ponzi since its inception, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse.
Merrill’s sentencing memorandum goes on to describe the plight of his kids, who purportedly are showing signs of depression. The financial status of the family is also brought up.
TelexFree’s motto was “changing lives”, and that it certainly did.
Merrill’s life and that of his family are but one example, contrasted against the hundreds of thousands who also had families destroyed and were left financially ruined.
It’s what Ponzi schemes do. And while my heart goes out to the innocent family members now suffering as a direct result of Merrill’s conduct, that is and always will be on him. It should certainly not be an excuse to spare him a suitable punishment for his crimes.
The phenomena of criminals leading entirely separate lives outside of their criminal activity is not new. The scandal makes for a good news story but in no way should the magnitude of a crime be reduced by unrelated factors.
Certainly a sentence of a year and one day for heading a $3 billion dollar Ponzi scheme is exactly that.
The government has asked Merrill be given a ten years sentence. I don’t envy the judge in determining a medium between that and a year.
Jim Merrill has been punished enough for a lifetime, and will continue to be punished for a lifetime. His restitution obligations—legal or moral—will
hang around his neck like an albatross.The harm already inflicted upon a true family man like Jim Merrill will remain with him forever.
The Court simply does not need to imprison a person like Jim Merrill to punish him.
For what it’s worth, while I have problem with Merrill being locked away for ten years, I’d think a sentence as low as six years would also be just.
One can simply not have billion dollar Ponzi kingpins being handed down slap on the wrist sentences.
Whatever the Judge decides, within twenty-four hours we’ll have an answer either way.
Stay tuned…
Update 23rd March 2017 – Merrill has been sentenced to six years in prison.
the sentencing guidelines in the US used to throw up staggering sentences for white collar crimes which could be totally unreasonable like 50 years or a hundred years. one guy got sentenced to 330 years on the basis of the sentencing guidelines!
federal judges began complaining about the length of the sentences which they could not hand out in good conscience. some judges followed the guidelines while others ignored them and decided sentencing themselves, and this began to cause wide fluctuations in sentences for similar white collar crimes, depending on the judges personal inclinations.
anyway, seeing that all this ^^ made no sense logically or morally, the sentencing guidelines [for white collar crimes] were reformed in 2015/2016 to throw up somewhat more balanced numbers.
recently, we saw paul burks of zeek receive a somewhat sensible sentence of 14 years [out in approx 12 years with good behavior] and now we see the prosecution offering 10 years to merril of telexfree.
this is a relief, because the sentences are more reasonable than morally repugnant sentences of say 50 or a 100 years, but personally, i think they are still a bit high.
i could live with that too.
I’d have no problems with Wanzeler copping life. His shifty nephew probably deserves a harsher sentence than Merrill too.
Oh and for anyone wanting to play along at home, Merrill’s sentencing hearing will be in 7 hrs and 10 minutes.
I’ll be up… A few readers have stated they’ll be attending the hearing so one way or another we should know what the sentence is shortly after it’s handed down.
considering that merril and wanzeler were co owners of telexfree and that merril was only ‘less’ responsible for the crime, i wouldn’t like a very wide disparity in their sentences. if merill gets say 6 years [out in 5], wanzeler should probably get 10 years [out in 8]. 8 years is a looong looong time.
as in live telecast or something?!!
Plus one additional year for each year he remains a fugitive in Brazil.
No telecast but Massachusetts media will be there no doubt.
I’ll be sitting here preparing a review or two and checking in every few minutes…
I know of people in the US who stole $50,000 – $60,000 and got 15 months in prison. I know a person who stole $20,000 and got 4 years in prison. And none of them had any priors when sentenced. Just illustrating the inconsistency between courts and judges.
If someone got 4 years for stealing $20,000 can you imagine what type of sentence the judge would have given for $3 Billion Dollars?
flight in itself is not a crime unless a person flees detention or arrest:
criminaldefenselawyer.com/crime-penalties/federal/Evading-Arrest-on-Foot.htm
AFAIK, wanzeler was only a ‘suspect’ when he fled and there was no arrest warrant issued against him.
fleeing would probably make a judge refuse him bail if he is arrested [merril got bail within a month of his arrest, burks got bail instantly].
it seems that in 2015, wanzeler’s lawyers were in discussions with the prosecution to thrash out some ‘conditions’ for his return to the US, but at that point brazil took away his passport, as he is indicted there too.
so, i think fleeing before being detained or arrested would not attract extra punishment. maybe it is at most a misdemeanor ‘type’ of charge, which cannot attract more than one year and a fine.
i have doubts about whether brazil will return him to the US until they’re done punishing him.
that would be 600,000 years only, sir 🙂
From two additional memorandum filings today:
The other memorandum addresses Merrill appearing to lie to vendors about the legal status of TelexFree’s VOIP offering.
and that is why 10 years wouldn’t be enough. the guy is a purposely deceiving scumbag and should be made an example of.
sentencing is suppose to not only be punishment for the offender but also be a deterrent to others who do the same/think of doing the same such as the other scumbag scoville.
all these clowns have to do is hide money like scoville has and wait out the paltry sentence.
Those are some reasons anjali and I will never agree on sentencing.
The guy helped ruin thousands of lives, which will take people how many combined years to recover from their losses, if ever?
Some may be so shattered and broken they take their own lives. Bad choice, yes, but a choice that Merrill’s actions helped lead to.
As the saying goes, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
Just my opinion, which like everyone else’s here, doesn’t really matter. 😉
Still nothing from the hearing yet. We’re two hours in now.
the US has very harsh and long sentences compared to other english speaking countries.
about one in eleven convicts in the US are serving life terms.
inspite of the length of sentencing, the US is worse than even a developing poor country like india in crime rate:
the UK, australia and sweden are better than the US with world ranks of 62,63,64 respectively.
do long sentences really act as a deterrent? i wouldn’t put my money on it.
So Jeff Babener was aware that TelexFree was a scam… Hmmm…
Lawyers are very good with that theater to emphasize the individual ‘drama’ of the criminal they are representing.
Is certainly true that Merryl and family are going thru hell since he got caught.
But how about the lives of thousands of ppl and their families he screwed worldwide, KNOWING ALL THE TIME what he was doing?
So, dear lawyer, can you put that in balance? Or do you prefer to put it in perspective, put aside, and try to deflect any tries to mention it by the accusation?
Maybe you choose to deflect it, but I suspect the judge will choose to take it on account too.
Anyways, good luck with your soap opera drama… 🙂