TelexFree @ BehindMLM

Following a guilty plea entered last month, earlier today Sanderely Rodrigues fronted court for a sentencing hearing. Rodrigues faced a maximum penalty of ten years in prison, supervised release for three years, a $250,000 fine and deportation.

This came as a bit of a surprise… On October 24th James Merrill plead guilty to guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charges stemmed from Merrill’s involvement in running TelexFree, a $3 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. As per a Status Report fled by the [Continue reading…]

As reported three days ago, TelexFree co-owner and President James Merrill has today formally entered a guilty plea in his criminal case. As per a plea agreement filed on October 24th, Merrill has plead guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Last month we reported that Sanderley Rodrigues had agreed to enter a guilty plea for visa fraud. At an October 5th hearing Rodrigues entered a guilty plea, which was accepted by the court.

After a failed bid to delay his trial until November 14th, James Merrill’s criminal proceedings were scheduled to kick off on November 8th. Rather than attempt to clear his name and business dealings through TelexFree, it now appears that an eleventh hour plea deal has been struck. This coming Monday, James Merrill is expected to [Continue reading…]

A year ago the Zeek Rewards Receiver sued disgraced Ponzi lawyer Gerry Nehra for $100 million. Two months later Nehra settled with the Receiver for $100,000 and acknowledged Zeek Rewards was a Ponzi scheme. In their case against TelexFree co-owner James Merrill, the DOJ have called Nehra up as a government witness. In a motion filed [Continue reading…]

A few days ago James Merrill filed a motion for continuance, requesting his upcoming criminal trial be postponed till November 14th. The DOJ opposed the motion, citing preparation issues and weakness with Merrill’s reasoning. A hearing on the matter was held earlier today.

Two days ago James Merrill filed a motion requesting his upcoming criminal trial be postponed till November 14th. The original trial date (which has been rescheduled at least twice at Merrill’s request already), was October 23rd. Today the DOJ filed an opposition to Merrill’s motion, citing a number of legally compelling reasons.

As part of the TelexFree Trustee’s clawback rampage filed back in April, Hanna Shea Consulting was sued for $20,000. Rather than accept they had received stolen Ponzi funds as compensation and return the money for distribution to victims, Hanna Shea doubled down and filed a claim for an outstanding balance of $17,500. Negotiations between the [Continue reading…]

The criminal trial of James Merrill is quite possibly one of the most anticipated MLM Ponzi regulatory actions to date. Two years in the making, Merrill is currently scheduled to stand trial on October 23rd. In an eleventh hour filing however, Merrill has now asked the court to delay the trial for three weeks. Among [Continue reading…]