TelexFree @ BehindMLM

During the raid on TelexFree’s Massachusetts offices, federal law enforcement seized various assets of TelexFree, including servers used by TelexFree, about 38 boxes of documents, and about two dozen computer drives. The electronic data alone is believed to be over 400 terabytes of material. As regulators continue to build their respective cases against TelexFree, the [Continue reading…]

This isn’t shaping up to be a good week for Fidelity bank or its President John F. Merrill. Not even a day after it was announced that the bank had settled with the Massachusetts Securities Division for $3.5 million, now the Chapter 11 Trustee has indicated he’s looking for a piece of the action too. [Continue reading…]

Over two years of operations, TelexFree has employed multiple financial accounts, including domestic and international bank accounts and various online payment processors, to facilitate the fraudulent offer or sale of securities in Massachusetts. Almost all financial institutions have terminated their relationship with TelexFree after only a few months of business. Recently, frantic emails between TelexFree [Continue reading…]

To the best of my knowledge there are four claims and allowances matters that are going to be heard next Tuesday. Alvarez and Marsal initially wanted $876,463.72, Greenberg and Traurig initially wanted $1,044,813.95, Gordon Silver want $230,000 and Stuart MacMillan (interim CEO) is demanding he be paid $107,089.45 for expenses and services rendered. Following negotiations with the [Continue reading…]

In an effort to strengthen the criminal case against TelexFree’s owners, the Department of Justice requested a stay on discovery in the SEC’s civil case. The DOJ reasoned that without a stay, Merrill and perhaps Wanzeler – charged in both actions – would use the civil discovery process in a manner that impairs proper administration of [Continue reading…]

As Carlos Wanzeler fled the US and his partner James Merrill prepared for another day of denying TelexFree was a Ponzi scheme, the FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security raided TelexFree’s offices and ‘a local business that maintained TelexFree’s servers‘. Federal law enforcement seized various assets of TelexFree, including servers used by TelexFree, about [Continue reading…]

In the last few months of its Ponzi scheme operations, TelexFree took in a staggering fifty million dollars. And despite being provided with legal advice indicating that they were running a pyramid scheme as far back as August of 2013, management still went ahead and paid themselves in excess of $10,000,000. When it became clear that regulators [Continue reading…]

TelexFree is not shut down in Brazil, there’s a lot of news there, it’s liar (sic). Everything you hear from news, it’s not true. Our company, everything is ok. Nothing will affect the US. Please continue your continued dedication, this company will persevere. -Carlos Wanzeler (TelexFree owner, now a fugitive), June 2013 To the very [Continue reading…]

That the filing of bankruptcy proceedings to escape criminal liability for the running of a billion dollar Ponzi scheme was absurd, is and always will be a given. Absurder still are the fee claims submitted by firms hired by TelexFree to orchestrate the bankruptcy circus. Despite being approached and hired only after TelexFree learned a regulatory [Continue reading…]

For affiliates who invested in TelexFree, the current situation is a bonafied mess. Little to nothing has been officially communicated to affiliates, with the roadmap of fund recovery a murky minefield of uncertainty. I’ve tried my best to analyze and cover what’s happened on the legal front, but short of predicting an inevitable Chapter 7 liquidation, [Continue reading…]