TelexFree bankruptcy hearing continued on Monday
I’m seeing a whole bunch of crazy information getting pushed out there by TelexFree affiliates about the next tax hearing date. Dates in late April and May are all over the place, and many are citing some list of nine things that are apparently to be discussed.
Meanwhile in reality, a single Judge has signed the order for a continuance of the motion, to be held on Monday April 21st. That’s it, so take any additional information with a dumptruck full of salt (such as five judges voting on anything…etc).
As per the order, objections need to be filed before 1:30pm on April 21st, and I imagine we’ll be seeing something from either the Massachusetts Securities Division, the SEC or both.
Both regulatory agencies filed their respective Ponzi and pyramid scheme complaints on the 15th of April, so there appears to be some cross-over as far as their respective investigations and subsequent filed cases go.
There is currently a temporary restraining order out on TelexFree, meaning they cannot do anything as far as business operations go. Lest they breach the TRO and invite an additional world of trouble on themselves.
Enjoy your weekend folks, and be wary of the BS brigade. A lot of people are doing everything they can to keep their downlines from revolting against them – and it’s not helping anyone.
Hats off to you Oz for you diligent up-to-date coverage. Hopefully, you will get to catch a breather this weekend with things temporarily calming down.
Very good Oz. I read a lot of facebook comments saying: “3 Judges voted for and 2 against” and ” we have already proven to be no pyramid” and so on. It is really annoying. Anyway, what means “BS” ?
Again about the false news: it is being noticed, that Telex needs only to prove four points: 1-) the voip system; 2) the company’s re-opening; 3) the re-structuration plan; 4) a better costumer service;
Jail time, freeze assets and refund some losses. This is what i wanna see
BS = “caca de vaca” (rough translation)
(well, technically is “mierda de toro”, but that other translation sounds better)
Oops, should have said that’s Spanish, not Portuguese. 😀
Note that these are all things the affiliates *wish* to happen. Which proves that it’s “wishful thinking”.
Magical delusional thinking 😉
Hello everyone and thank you very much for such a detailed information.
I am a promoter from NYC and we have a huge number of people that have been defrauded into joining this scheme. We want to file civil suit and have contacted Cal Cunningham who was the lawyer against Zeek Rewards. Seems like he is a very slow responder and I am personally receiving hundreds of emails from people around the world.
Was wandering if there is someone else credible that you guys can recomend?
This is f*cking unbelievable, one thing is those Telexzombies spamming wishful thinking as if it was actual news, another is the Portuguese State television doing the same.
RTP-Madeira just announced in Telejornal (Main News at 9PM) that Telexfree is expecting “a final decision” on the company by the American courts by May 2, even quoting the “four points” which were missing and will be going to be discussed Monday, basically parroting the BS being spammed allover Telexfree sites.
I can just imagine the emotional roller-coaster going on in the people here, now believing again there is hope they can get their money back and/or continue with the fraudulent scheme. At the end of this process they probably will be so exhausted that no energy would be left to fight for their rights (assuming they have any at all).
Hi.
I just ran into a video by Graça Luisa, the leader of TelexFREE on Madeira Island.
In it she essentially says that (title) “TelexFREE IS NOT A PYRAMID: a great victory in the North American Courts”.
Below is a loose / brief transcription:
00m00 – 00m20:
• Hello etc…
0om20 – 01m20:
• Today was the trial date, and we had a great victory.
• On Friday the SEC did indeed accuse the company of being a pyramid.
• Today3 of the 5 judges decided that TelexFREE is not a pyramid (3 versus 2).
• This is a great victory, which we can celebrate, having passed this difficult phase.
01m20 – 01m40:
• At this moment it has been legally declared that we are not a pyramid scheme.
• 9 points of contention were taken to court. 5 of these were satisfactorily resolved, with the remaining 4 passing to May 2.
01m40 – 02m20:
• I believe these are points related to the restructuring of the company.
• The company was obligated to pay 23 million USD in taxes.
• This is, in itself a good sign, because if the company was involved in illegalities, we would not be required to pay those types of taxes.
• Illegal activities are not taxed.
Please provide me any info you can to (Ozedit: email removed), especially where I can read the proceedings. Thank you for your help.
@Chang, @Oz
The official BS statement among brazilian promoters is: “From the 9 items analyses, 5 were already proven – 1) Telexfree is not a Pyramid/ Ponzi; 2) There is no money laundering; 3) There is a product; 4) Pays all the taxes; 5) is up-to date with all business obligations.
On 2nd May, Friday, at 9:00 a.m. there are only 4 points to be proven to the Federal Court….”and so on.
I fear am I have not quite understood the actual situation. First, Telexfree tried to apply for Bankruptcy; then SEC, Mass. shut Telexfree down…and at the same time, SEC (Federal), sues Telexfree? Or is Mass. working together with the feds? I think this is not really understood by the brazilian press and, of course, population.
I have the impression, and this is exactly what Telexfree is trying to say, that hey applied for bankruptcy and this alarmed the Mass. division. Now they proved everything to the American Justice, which is by the way more powerful than SEC, and 3 judges were favorable to Telexfree.
We are all near the rainbow. It is remarkable how hard it is to get a good storyline of this case, specially in the brazilian press.
Fact: there are no “3 judges favorable to TelexFree”. Bankruptcy is heard by 1 judge, not 3.
Fact: Bill Galvin, MA secstate had stated that SEC and other agencies have kept an eye on TelexFree for MONTHS, but did not act because they are tracking down all the money. When TelexFree tried to declare bankruptcy, everybody piled on and froze everything.
You only heard about SEC right now because they had the whole thing sealed and only opened it when asset freeze is complete.
Furthermore, another reported that Bill Galvin stated that he’ll fight the bankruptcy.
Madeira news needs to do some real reporting. I suspect someone is just feeding them “news”. Which is why I ask people there to pressure the local prosecutor to look into the stuff. S/he won’t rely on bull****.
Which press? iG and Globo are really reporting. It’s Arauna that’s publishing crap info.
An official statement by Telexfree apparently was issued today, you can read it here:
prnewswire.com/news-releases/telexfree-issues-statement-255809381.html
Nothing new, which should be significant by itself: Telexfree “victory” in the courts is notoriously absent from there.
Note that it’s issued by TelexFree LLC… of Nevada. NOT TelexFree Inc.
By now, we should all have learned that press release, esp. coming off PRNewswire, are crap info.
Doesn’t it boil down to the same thing? I seem to recall from the court papers that they recognize them collectively as “Telexfree”.
Others that only comes with lies is AcreAlerta and EncontreinaRede.
Yes… but previous TelexFree press releases, right up to bankruptcy, never stated whether it’s the LLC or the Inc. making the release. It just says “TelexFree”.
ereleases.com/pr/author/telexfree
So this likely is NOT written by the same people.
Unbelievable!
Im my mind there’s only 2 possibilities for this to have happened:
1. incompetent news reporter
2. the reporter is a TF promoter
In fact, it’s highly probable that it’s a mixture of both!
OK. Congratulations to all the “I told you so” people here. I get it that you guys are having a field day with Telexfrees demise. But let’s not forget that there are peoples livelihoods at stake here.
One should never take pleasure out of someone else’s mistakes and misfortune. But for those that do not know the Madeiran community … They have fun seeing others misfortunes under the disguise of “I was smarter than you a attitude” (and i’m pointing at you Velho do Restelo).
Now, instead of all this pompous, arrogant, selfish “I saved the world attitude”, let us help the truly mislead people who lost all. They were misinformed by promoters. If you actually care,(instead of looking for the “I told you so” praise) Help people looking on this site with advice on how to proceed from here on forward.
You must understand that under the current economic crises, the Telexfree business model did help many many people for many months. Call it stealing, distribution of wealth … whatever. The fact is that now there are people who’s children, families, and putting food on the table depended on this and you guys are carrying on here like these people deserve to suffer.
Compassion my friends. Remember … Shit can also hit your safe, legal day to day lifestyle, fan.
Peace.
New documentation has been posted at kccllc.net/telexfree. Apparently there is indeed a “final hearing” scheduled to May 2, but it seems to be only respecting docs 6 (“Motion Re: Chapter 11 First Day Motions filed by TELEXFREE, LLC)” and 10 (“Motion to Limit Notice filed by TELEXFREE, LLC”).
I’m not sure what this means, that whole thing looks like a legal swamp to me. All other seem to continue in April 21 and May 2.
“Restelo’s Old Man” LOL
Great reference to Luis de Camões
@ Bruno
That is not all. I have tried to publish links and facts about what is on the international media on dnoticias.pt and it’s quite hard.
Their last report was the Bankrupt report on 14th of April plus the wording used is Judicial recuperation that is a correct translation but does not sound like too much bad news. If they used the words bancarrota or falencia with be a beter soundbite.
It’s very clear they are all TF promoters. As I said before their are reports of even Taxman beeing TF promoters as well as police officers and politicians.
There is just no way in official media you can get an upto date of what is really happening unless you visit sites like this here. Very disapointing the media is still hopping telexfree will recover. They are in on it that is the only explanation.
Currently the bankruptcy case is in its initial stages, and it’s currently not in conflict with other court orders.
TelexFree has been halted by another court. That case is also in its initial stages, but it will effectively limit what a bankruptcy court can order.
There’s currently nothing to dispute in the bankruptcy case, the party hasn’t asked for anything critical yet. It has asked for authorization of the employment of a claims agent, and for the process to continue.
Both cases will need to continue 1 or 2 steps further before there can be anything to dispute.
Diário de Notícias da Madeira coverage of this issue is a complete disgrace, indeed, possibly due to heavy adherence to this fraud inside their ranks (which was obvious until the debacle to anyone who had contacts there).
They are also censoring a lot of information in the comment section, in my case they censored every link from Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC (which actually is contracted by Telexfree!!) along with other relevant links to well known Boston newspapers.
Jornal da Madeira doesn’t even refer the subject, only RTP-Madeira is doing something, even if too often with bad information.
It’s very sad that in such moments of need the people of Madeira can’t count with the regular media to give clear and accurate information in this subject.
I believe the promoters are misinterpreting the functions of a bankruptcy court. All the cited points are outside the jurisdiction of a bankruptcy court.
Exactly WHERE in the court documents did they find the “9 items analysis”?
1) Telexfree is not a Pyramid/ Ponzi;
2) There is no money laundering;
3) There is a product;
4) Pays all the taxes;
5) is up-to date with all business obligations.
Last time I checked, the court was asked to handle the authorization of the employment of a claims agent, and asked to allow the case to continue.
Before that, it was handling some missing documents. It has also been handling hearing dates.
From the press-release:
Lololol. Someone needs to tell Steve Labriola that this isn’t Brazil.
The only place that can be found is from the guy who claimed he was present in the bankruptcy court prelim hearing.
Taken from the recent minute entries:
As per the minutes, there are three motions being discussed on the 2nd of May.
The “Motion for Joint Administration” is I believe generalities within filing for Chapter 11.
The “First Day Motions” are, just as the name sounds, the first day of hearing motions. This makes any talk of any decisions being made in the case prior all the more ridiculous.
The “Motion to Limit Notice” is to do with TelexFree trying to use the bankruptcy court to render their Ponzi liabilities null and void:
At this stage, that is all that is being heard on the 2nd of May. The original application, and any subsequent rejections (filed by the SEC and/or Massachusetts Securities Division) will continue to be heard on Monday April 21st.
That’s where we’re at, so I’d suggest continuing to ignore all the other BS coming out of South America and the non-English speaking affiliate community.
Too much is getting lost in translation with idiots relaying what they think they heard in English by mobile phone, which is then translated into Portuguese and Spanish and then being translated back again into English. It’s a joke.
Just stick to what’s actually in the court orders as they are made available.
If I read the legalese correct (we can ask Jordan Maglich) that means they want the Nevada judge to also handle Telex Financials, which is a FLORIDA corp, and out of his jurisdiction unless the owner requests it.
It’s just “paperwork”, like “I authorize so-and-so to act on my behalf”, then they each have to apply for “pro hac” appearance before the court if they are not normally active in that jurisdiction.
TelexFree is based in the east and their normal lawfirm is Greenberg Traurig, and don’t have lawyers in Nevada, so they hired Gordon Silver in NV as their local liaison. Kurtzman Carson is the company that publishes all this info on behalf of Greenberg Traurig.
Hmmm… I thought it’s “we can’t possibly notify tens of thousand of people so we won’t” kind of motion. 🙂
What I find interesting is TelexFree claims they only have 100 million in liabilities (but only 50 million in assets). Feds say they have 1.2 BILLION in liabilities. 🙂
So clearly, they don’t plan to pay everybody, despite whatever “guarantee” they’ve been promising.
See “Voluntary Petition for TelexFree, LLC” at http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree
I think that might be part of it. There’s mention in the motion that it should be granted “ex-parte”, so it appears they’re trying to render the AdCentral contracts void without and opposition, and then also without having to inform anyone about it.
Of course none of this should matter given the contracts were fraudulent, but short of receiving an official objection from the SEC or Securities Division, one can forgive the bankruptcy court for simply following procedure.
This mess will get sorted when the agencies make their move.
I’m actually wondering if all of this nonsense will be used against them at a later date, considering its now being orchestrated whilst the TRO is in effect.
The TRO is very real, you can see the effects with the named Ponzi pimp defendents removing themselves from the various TelexFree Facebook groups they were adminning.
Faith Sloan has also locked down her otherwise busy Facebook profile. And the queen of mouthing off issued a “no comment” (she was sounding off about how wrong BehindMLM was about TelexFree only a week ago). Before she locked it down, she also deleted a bunch of discussion on the TRO and SEC case against her.
Shit’s real people.
I am reading the Massachusetts complaint…
1) Wow, Mass investigators had been investigating TelexFree possibly for over a year, as it stated it was contacted by a Brazilian journalist, presumably at or BEFORE its shutdown in Brazil.
2) Any one know who is “Livia Mara Campista Wanzeler”? I thought Katia Wanzeler is Carlos’ wife.
3) Suite 200 at the Telexfree address is a common conference room, used by 24 different tenants. Said that before.
4) TelexFree has no telecom for sale. It’s all provided by DiskAvontade, and you can get it directly from Disk… if you want to.
5) TelexFree bought a MB for 100K (apparent for “extravanganza”, maybe for Sann Rodrigues?) in Orlando, FL
6) TelexFree, when queried by MA, can only count 239 million “retail” though TWO YEARS (2012 and 2013)
7) MA was already tracking TelexFree’s banking activities, as it was moving money with deposits, withdrawals, and transfers among the entities with unusual patterns, and “often in cash”
8) TelexFree dumped 25 million into various investment accounts
9) Multiple banks dumped TelexFree. One did so after only 2 months. A payment processor only lasted 6 months. VISA has TelexFree on a watchlist due to chargebacks, one of only 3 in the US on “month 5” (i.e. long term monitoring)
Only now? What have you been doing all week chief?!
I’ve been getting into silly fights with the GF over how much time I’ve spent covering this lol.
That would be her attorney telling her “stop saying **** that will incriminate you!”
Reading your excellent coverage, of course. 🙂
I’m reading the VOIP service just got flicked back on.
That’s handled by Wanzeler’s Disk A Vontade (or whatever it’s called) company isn’t it? They’re not a named defendant in either regulatory complaint.
I’m guessing he got the OK by his lawyers to turn that back on.
Either that, of the Mass/Feds shut it off to prevent them from remote wiping any critical evidentiary data.
One must remember that Andy “Ad Surf Daily” Bowdoin was loudly proclaiming that OneX and other schemes is going to make him a lot of money for his defense fund, except Secret Service and prosecutors recorded all that and was about to drop it at his sentencing hearing then he got wise and plead guilty.
If FS did the same she can expect the same treatment by the Feds.
From the MA document, sounds like Livia lives in Brazil and can sign checks along with Carlos Costa. Any one?
Livia Wanzeler is Carlos Wanzeler’s daughter, she is currently leaving in Worcester, Ma USA!
This whole thing is so surreal!! So Greedy!
FBI is searching everywhere in the Worcester, Ma area.. a lot people a going down!!
She’s listed like this in the Massachusetts complaint:
I believe she’s living in the US. She’s clearly a Wanzeler family member
That may be true. I’m not familiar with Carlos Costa’s personal life. But if he’s married to Katia then he’s probably not married to Lyvia. 🙂
Livia Mara Campista Wanzeler is the 26 yr old daughter of Carlos Wanzeler from a previous relationship… She currently resides in Worcester MA but I hear she’s already MIA (missing in Action).
I guess not many people new she was neck deep in this BS… Heck most people didn’t even know she existed at all. It’s a shame her own father dragged her into this hell…
Carlos Wanzeler lacks any sense of compassion towards his loved ones or any regard to the law… I’m sure the FBI is on his trail by now…
Telexfree have activated the voip service again, what are they want to do with this?
The more I learn about this, the more it amazes me what people are capable of doing for the love of money… This is a lesson in human nature… People can be completed blinded by the notion they can become rich overnight (without any actual effort) to the point that they ignore all commonsense.
I never invested a dime in this crap but I know of many people who did and as bad as this may sound I’m really having a hard time felling any compassion for them specially for those who I had the opportunity to tell them they were about to make the worse mistake of their lives when they told me they were about to invest in Telexfree.
All I can say that I felt this real sense of peace when I got up at 5am today to go to work and put my 10 hours of hard work… I never felt that good before.
Judging by how they have defied the brazilian courts and judicial system in the past 10 months it does not surprise me… But I guess they will soon find out how well the system works in the US…
This is no Brazil where there are laws but they are never really enforced… Hats off to the judge in the state of Acre but at times it seems she’s fighting a lonely battle… And at times it seems she may loose that battle at the end… Though ai pray she doesn’t!!!
@OZ, Junior.
Please this not Brazil!! At least they have frozen everything 10 months ago. You guys are acting as if US acted quick in this Ponzi scheme. At least people there is going to get 100% of their money. Ahhahahaa don’t make me laugh!!!
Really? And how do you know this meat head.
Because they have frozen everything around 10 months ago!!!and not 10 months after!!!! You guys are acting like : “Yeah, we are are going to show them how the American system works”!!
It acted retarded slow…….wait……beyond slow….it only got temporarily restrained order!! And the company is trying to go bankrupt. What is more confusing than that!!??? Tell me!!
How about the other 2 major Ponzi out there (wingsnetwork and clickprime8) ….what? We are going to act 10 months from now??!!!
Eddyo, I don’t disagree with you on the shutdown of the company by the Judge in Acre… I give her all the credit for making it happen but the likelihood that any of these scammers down there will actually pay for their sins is very remote…
Although I do agree that there actually may be a chance they will get some if not most of their money back… But that remains to be seen.
By the way I’m also a Brazilian who now lives in the US… and between us we know that when scams happen in Brazil they rarely put the scammers in jail and the money is rarely returned to their proper owners… As they say down there these things always end up in a pizza party but unfortunately not for the victims.
I stand proud to have both citizenships and feel proud say that I’m Brazilian and what better time then now to start changing the system and put that biggest scum bag Carlos Costa behind bars. Keeping the faith!!!
Slow? they are smart, they are tracing where the laundered money goes to make a more solid case.
100% is going to get the money back? where is the money to pay all that money? They are making just a distraction to keep promoters hope.
Sure keep tell yourself that!! They are going to trace all the money!!?? What world do you live in!! Garvin said he does not know where most of the money went. I know Brazilian that are long gone with millions!!!!
The only reason the Feds stopped this Ponzi dead on, it was because they know and it happened before, you cannot trace where the money went!!
I haven’t said all money. Do you what is the meaning of clawback ?
listen!! Brazilian Feds froze the whole thing, because it happened before. Sure, you can trace some of the money and send the top dogs to jail. However, most of the money will be gone, and it will affect the local or the region economy.
In this type of situation you have to react fast. The Brazilians will get at least 60%. Why is taking them this long to close the case there? Because, they needed help from here.
The government closed Bbom in last then a year, because it was a local Ponzi, which Telexfree is not.
Here’s a fresh story… Hot off the press (web).
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/18/alleged-global-fraud-telexfree-started-ashland-cleaning-company/5g3IKM1ycQKw0MUNT3BEYM/story.html
Enjoy!
One last thing! Let’s not act as if the government did a great job, because they did not. Even Carlos costa mocked the US system in his videos!!
@Eddyo
The only thing I meant by that was TelexFree aren’t going to be able to file 20 something appeals based on BS. Nor is there going to be a Carlos Costa updating us with misleading “news” every few days on YouTube.
TelexFree will face much more than a $10,000 or so fine for pulling the dodgy in US litigation.
I wholly appreciate that Brazil stepped in almost a year before the US did.
As for people getting their money back, it’s mathematically impossible for people in Brazil to receive everything they put in out of the seized funds there.
Meanwhile I’m sure the US will locate the $300 million currently MIA quick smart once the SEC have served discovery and conducted their depositions. Cumulatively you can expect a few million extra to be returned by the top pimps named and management (who have been paying themselves god knows how much for how long).
That’s not enough to make everyone whole (mathematically impossible), but it’s a start.
This isn’t about whose justice system is better, let’s just be glad TelexFree is done for and the industry can move on.
As interesting as it’s been, I’m looking forward to finally getting around to some non-TelexFree coverage next week. My emails need catching up on too.
In a twisted crazy way, I cannot believe this thing is happening where I live and that I saw Carlos and his wife in the IHOP on Sunday!! He seemed in a panic mode.
Always carry a camera phone around 🙂 Photos would have been golden!
You should take a look at clickprime8. It is a little bit similar to wcm777. It is getting popular with Brazilian and African community.
Jordan Maglich (Forbes, Ponzi Tracker) points out the fallacy of the hope so many TelexFree affiliates are expressing with the bankruptcy proceedings:
http://www.ponzitracker.com/main/2014/4/18/telexfree-asks-bankruptcy-court-to-eliminate-promoter-obliga.html
It’s on the review list, just that reviews have ground to a halt these past few weeks because of all the TelexFree stuff. News has been building not just in the last week but also the few weeks prior.
Can anyone confirm what I heard in Framingham, MA today?
I was told that we can give our name and Telexfree information to Garvin ‘s office, so they can help us to get some of our money back. Is there any truth to that???
Of course “I told you so”, “I told you so to” to the people around me dozens of times when it was still time to avoid entering the fraud, with reasonable success.
Nobody in my extended direct family entered the scheme, despite the close siege by the Telexfree fanatics. The few relatives who entered it, have done it with the full knowledge they were joining a fraud and accepting the risks.
I’m now seeking accurate information on the process to help the friends and acquaintances who lost all they bet on this scheme, and sites like this are essential, since the regular media is doing a miserable job in informing the people here.
Anyway, Zonked, this is not the place to whine about your own stupidity and imbecility, in case you were a part in this fraud, nor is this a lawyers office or Santa Casa da Misericórdia to hand you solutions and remedies to your money problems.
The “current crisis”, sheer greed or whatever is your excuse is not an acceptable reason to join criminal activities such as Telexfree. If you want to do something about it, start to pointing the lies being continuously spread by the chief crooks over here, namely Graça Luísa and Paola, keeping their downlines in the dark; advise anyone who used a credit card to try to claim the money back for fraud; and recommend them to seek legal advice if they still want to do something about it, instead of coming here shooting in all directions with that stupid attitude.
Wasn’t that what those TF promotores f?ckers did all this time? They took advantage of people’s vulnerabilities (mostly uneducated, naive, unemployed people) and fooled them into “investing” in this scam so they could guarantee their “profits”!
You are seriously f?cked up! You know that, don’t you?
You are in no position to understand what has gone on behind the scenes. You only know that the US action followed Brazil’s by X number of months. I can think of four or five possible reasons for this, none of which involves defects in the US “system.” Galvan mentioned them.
You however, admit that you are confused as to the purposes of bankrupty and cite a You Tube puff piece by your buddy “Carlos” to substantiate your opinions.
FAIL
BTW. I should have mentioned it … I have no money involved in this business. But like yourself, know many people who do and have personally helped them out (monetary and otherwise).
And a word of advice … get off your high horse. Your pompous, arrogant attitude will bite you in the ass one day. Good Luck.
Hi,
I´ve been following the news about Telexf…
Thanks to you all.
Why can´t I “open” (see) the files from KCC? Aren´t simple .pdf files?
All I can say is that maybe is a little to late Carlos may already left the country.. I agree with Addyo the government acted a little to late not fast enough, but I’m glad the did. None has no idea how big this whole thing is, no idea!
I’m also from the same area as Carlos and have seen him and he’s family around many times. My family and I never became part of this scheme and we knew it all along that this was going to happen sooner or later. But never knew that was going to be this big of a mess all over the world.
To be honest I’m not surprise at all! I don’t feel bad at all for a lot people that is or was part of TF, I personally know people that quit the jobs because and took long vacations in Brazil because the thought they we’re millionaires.
Lol, also heard that are many illegal immigrants that purchase new cars, new house paying “Cash” even more, they are a lot “Brazilians” that are riding millions, yes I said millions $$ in cash in they own houses around Worcester/Framingham and Florida.
I do believe that FBI, ICE and IRS should step up and go after a these people, top promoters specially Carlos close “friends” and “family”.
Oz I whant to know what we (affiliates) should do or what you recomend us to do in order to get our money back?
No idea. That’s beyond the scope of BehindMLM.
@sportsman
If you click “court douments” on the menu bar (on the left), it should bring up a list. Then simply click the document titles and it should open up new PDF files.
Protip: Click them holding CTRL down or they all open in funky weird-sized windows.
Right now the government have to stop the bankruptcy.
THEN after that’s done, they’ll appoint a receiver like Zeek and WCM. THEN after they cleaned up the records they’ll start a reclaim process where you all can register and file your claims. This can take a whole year, depending on how long the bankruptcy mess takes.
You have to wait till then. Get all the documents ready: amount of money you paid to TelexFree, both Brazil AND the US. SEPARATELY, or if you paid a “local affiliate”, prove that too. THEN you wait another year or two and get a little bit of your money back. Judging by the amount of “commission” paid out, there ain’t much left in TelexFree… maybe 50-75 million, depending on how much it can grab back.
And obviously… this is NOT legal advice. I’m not a lawyer and I’m not qualified, but this is the normal course as proven by Zeek and now WCM ponzi schemes.
Then you wait a year or two.
Telexfree have activated the voip service again, what are they want to do with this?
I’m thinking it’s through Disk a Vontade, which wasn’t mentioned in the SEC complaint. Wanzeler’s lawyers probably advised he could turn it back on.
It’s pretty much all they can do at this point to keep stringing people along.
Thanks! 0z
Good to see that you changed that “less than” sign in post #62. It caused serious problems. 🙂
Make sure you’re able to identify your own position in the network = your sponsor, your own accounts (username, etc.). Make sure your able to identify your own e-Wallet (username, etc.).
Make sure you’re able to identify your own transactions, money IN and money OUT.
* You don’t need to include payouts to the back office.
* Identify withdrawals to e-Wallets.
* Identify if something has been frozen in e-Wallets.
If you have some documentation, e.g. for money you have paid IN, try to organize it so you can upload it when you file a claim.
I’m not a lawyer either, so it’s more about common sense than about legal advice.
The ones who paid with Visa or other credit card may try as well to cancel the payment and request the money back, claiming fraud and pointing to the news and SEC paperwork which backs it up. Apparently people defrauded by Telexfree are doing that with success in the United States, I don’t know if it works outside of that country.
Someone please do correct me if I’m wrong (I’m going on memory from some years back), but the fraud claims on credit card purchases may backfire on the TelexFree members.
When a charge-back request is submitted, most often Visa, MasterCard, whomever, will “side” with the consumer, and may indeed issue a refund within days. But, there is a caveat. If the CC company investigates and finds the SEC and everyone else has frozen these funds, they may well turn around and re-charge the customer. In a normal charge-back, the CC company will withhold funds from the merchant until the issue is resolved. In this case, all of the funds are frozen by court order, so the CC company no longer has access to the funds, either. Think about it – would the CC company willingly eat the losses if there’s any kind of “out” for them?
Here’s a link with a brief overview of the charge-back process. The most interesting is the last section: Charge-back fraud.
http://www.cardfellow.com/blog/chargebacks/
Jerry
Is the Voip service back online?
Possible. A lot of cashier checks and such that was already mailed to Zeek (and thus in Receiver’s possession) was “cancelled” even though commercial law does not allow that for 90 days. Receiver sued the banks who had allowed such checks to be cancelled.
Basically, if you did it Wednesday (i.e. same day freeze takes place) or later, you may have a chance. If you did it on Tuesday or Monday, I personally wouldn’t advice it. If it’s any earlier, forget it.
Love my Dominican Republic. Here’s a parody of telexfree going bankrupt. Parodia TelexFree – Carlota y Carasaf:
No. You would be turned away. An orderly procedure will be set up a few months from now. Until then nobody will be able to assist you.
Idiots already started Change.org petitions asking US government to “bail out” TelexFree. Muahahahaha.
It’s mind boggling to think people want to bail out the very company and people that are stealing from them. I can’t wrap my head around that thought process.
All the lieing and cheating Telexfree top dogs have done. Craft trying to smuggle checks out of the office…do people understand the million dollar checks were made out the themselves? Do people understand the in the Bankruptcy they have named friends and family as those that are to be paid out?
I don’t see Maria every day lady Gonzalas on that list….or elderly lady Emma Smith on that list….Hellooooooo wake the heck up!
New press release from Telexfree LLC:
http://m.prnewswire.com/news-releases/telexfree-responds-to-false-and-misleading-statements-255878031.html
Says SEC allegations of misdoing by their accountant are false, and already complained about that with SEC
Lies and more lies from telexfree, if you look for news about the company, the only sites that show “good ones” are the sames sites owned by telexfree, like this: universomlm.com/noticias/142/telexfree-vuelve-a-trabajar
“Telexfree is going back to work.”
And its says, everything will normal on saturday morning (april 19th), but if you try to enter to the site, it keeps down, so this people is mean and lier by profession.
Real news say something and then, they run to publish the opposite on their web sites, damn liers.
Whew!! That clears everything up. lol
Hi Oz and everyone!!! Did you analyze who are in Telexfree? With the last news we can take a good view of the people in the world!
1) In Brazil no one care more about it… They know they lost money!
2) In portugal everyone was so afraid about it! And almost all people are from Madeira!!!
3) In Dominic Republic people was in panic!! All the country was searching for it!!!
4) In Uganda, people was in panic too
5) In Rwanda, the level is the same when their government ban the telexfree (yes, rwanda justice is better than USA justice, they did it before :p)
ok, the script didn’t work. This is the page: google trend
All reports I’m getting from Portugal say VOIP is inactive here. Is it possible that VOIP is working only for the USA?
The timeline
4-11 Wells Fargo, apparently from James Merril personal account, issues cashier check payable to Telexfree LLC
4-13 Telexfree LLC filed for bankruptcy.
4-15 Both SEC and MA. file complaints and SEC obtains TRO and asset freeze pertaining to individuals and companies.
4-17 Raid on Telexfree Offices, CFO Craft simultaneously runs out of ideas and scotch tape.
Revisionist attorney press release indicates Craft’s actions were because “the Company’s bank accounts had been closed, which necessitated the Company obtaining the funds in the form of cashier’s checks.”
…..except the check was drawn on Merill’s account on 4-11, four days prior to the TRO and asset freeze.
This appears to be no more than a last minute ham fisted attempt by Merrill to transfer his personal funds to a Telexfree LLC account in hopes that the money would be sheltered by his company’s bankruptcy filing.
As circumstances would have it, by the day of the raid the check may not have been cashable anyway because both Merrill’s account and Telexfree’s accounts were subject to the TRO … which explains why the press release indicates Craft intended to deposit it into an escrow OR a “safe deposit box.”
Cornered
Ill have to agree with Dorothy on post91. Its just mindboggling!!! ^^ oO…??
Either we are witnessing ignorance at an almost dogmatic religious indoctrination brainwashing level(the semminars)…or they want the company up so they can withraw their funds…or, after a taste of a life of not working…guess its a pain tk go back to the old routine…
Too big to fail? I don’t think so.
Quite interesting interview with SEC’s Paul Levenson (Director of Boston Regional Office):
(Ozedit: video starts in Portuguese but interview is in English)
Source: facebook.com/telexworldcom (which seems to have very precise and realisty information, despite its name).
@ Antonio
Either we are witnessing ignorance at an almost dogmatic religious indoctrination brainwashing level(the semminars)
It would certainly be an interesting phenomenon for a study.
I’ve found myself trying to explain the story, it’s history as well as the things that have gone on over the past year and I end up sounding like a nut myself because it’s to unbeleivable for people to grasp.
I beleive there is still so much more to be revealed. I think the monetary amount is going to be far greater once the investigation is completed and the behind the scenes stories that haven’t come to light yet will be shocking.
For instance, What happened when the “rock stars” went to Haitti? What was the discussion they had with the Prime Minister there? What was going on in the Dominican Republic that allowed Steve Labriola to continue visiting there and permoting Telexfree even as the government was suposedly investigating the company? What happened to the money that came out of Africa?
I know some readers and writers here think the US didn’t act fast enough and feel the courts act to slowly. I agree and I wish it could have been shut down when the first whisper of wrong doing was in the air. But unfortunatly putting together a case isn’t as easy as talking about it around the kitchen table or on a blog.
Information can’t just be heard, it has to be proven. What we think is moral in daily life isn’t law. To prove somthing in a court is very difficult.
I for one believe that certain things had to happen behind the scenes to set things in motion for what finally came down last week. As was said in a more recent post, this isn’t a scam that is taking place in only one state, or just the USA, but is world wide with many countries and many banking institutions involved.
I’ve thought for some time now, this one is going to be the biggest scam and so the greatest example will be made of it in our legal history. Secretary Galvin ( a name of Irish origin ) was my hope from research I did way back in the beginning of my education here at behindmlm.
When I heard he prosecuted other ponzie schemes I knew we where in good hands. BOSTON STRONG!!
When asked if TF would return from bk he said no. Telex is not a legitimate business because its profit never came from selling product, but from selling That illegal unregistered securities and the defendants will be charged accordingly.
That list that you refers, on number 13 appears Pedro Castillo he’s a known pastor or reverend of an evangelical church on the La Romana province in the Dominican Republic. Telexfree owes him or the church I suppose more than 400,000 dollars.
Also the head of consumer protection in the Dominican Republic said that she warned to the office of the general attorney about telexfree.
The attorney general responded to those accusations stating that he didn’t received not even one person Denounced telexfree in the Dominican Republic during that year, and dint act because no one affected Denounced telexfree.
http://www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/179161/56/Procurador-alega-que-espero-un-ano-para-proceder-contra-TelexFree-pero-que-nadie-se-querello.html
@Bruna
I generally won’t focus on randoms within a company I cover. Not unless it has some significance to the company at large that isn’t restricted to only a small subset of people.
Not enough time for that!
@Restelo
Possibly. I’m not a user of the service myself, what I read was coming from affiliates.
UOL Brazilian media attempted to contact Gerry Nehra about his involvement in TelexFree, apparently “he would not answer” any questions about recent regulatory action.
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mercado/2014/04/1442736-eua-acusam-a-telexfree-de-fraude-e-congelam-seus-bens.shtml
Too early to call Nehra’s MLM attorney career over?
There you see why authorities sometimes are slow and ineffective. The Attorney General waited for formal complaints from victims, he didn’t analyse the TYPE of scam.
If people want to shut down a scam, finding the right “channel for information” is a part of the job. Sometimes media channels are more effective than authorities, e.g. online financial newspapers.
SpeakAsia in India was “halted” first after an online newspaper started to ask critical questions about revenue sources. Different authorities suddenly became interested when the story was exposed.
My prediction for the bankruptcy case in Nevada is that it will be rejected or transferred to another court (Massachusetts, federal court) after the initial hearings.
My prediction is based on the lack of jurisdiction / justiciability of the case (e.g. the bankruptcy court can’t reverse TRO orders or rule against them). The bankruptcy court simply has too limited jurisdiction to handle the case as a whole.
The PREDICTION is based on general knowledge rather than on legal knowledge. I haven’t checked anything.
No surprise. The old cliche goes “squeaky wheel gets the grease”. DR is too new to be “squeaking”, but there had been loud squeaking from Brazil for almost a year. Basically the AG is saying ‘not my jurisdiction, not my problem’.
That’s exactly what it was. Then add “sunk cost fallacy” (I can’t stop! I’m in too deep!) “Ikea effect” (I advertised! I own my business!), optimism bias (I will succeed!) self-bias (I am smart!), and all the rest of the stuff.
It’s no surprise that many scammers invoke religious symbols. Profitable Sunrise used Jesus the Redeemer status as background quite often. As for TelexFree, look up Feliz Pascoa. He even uses Jesus and the cross on his facebook banner. 🙂
It literally is “faith”, and nothing else.
It’s even MORE ham-fisted than you think. It’s an attempt to hide assets.
When you buy cashier’s check, it’s good for 90 days, but the funds are withdrawn immediately.
So imagine this scenario:
50 million in bank.
M buys 40 million cashier’s check, bank has 10 million
M declares bankruptcy, wipes out debt/contracts, claims he only has 10 million in bank.
If judge don’t look any closer, and approves (no reason not to if all the paperwork’s in order, and “expedited judgement” is requested… )
Then 90 days later, money goes back into bank (cashier’s check automatically void) and he’s back at 50 mil, AND the debt/contracts are wiped out!
I know, only a minor glance at bank records is needed to pierce this clumsy attempt, and now, with the eyes of the world on TelexFree this is just plain stupid.
But unless Merill and Wanzeler are will to tell their side, who knows what they’re really thinking…
Federal District Courts refer bankruptcy filings to Federal Bankruptcy Court. They are actually one and the same. Thus they both have Federal jurisdiction.
If the Bankruptcy Court denies Telexfrees petition the Federal District Court, Las Vegas still has jurisdiction though it would withdraw the referral to Bankruptcy Court. The SEC-Mass cases could be heard in either Nevada or Massachusetts District Courts since there is diversity of interests either way.
You bring up valid points as to the mechanics of cashier’s checks. After looking at several other check specimens on the Boston Globe site I can not tell who’s Wells Fargo account this was. I don’t think it was Merrill’s but Telexfree’s and if so the motivation to do this is not what I previously assumed.
I am guessing that those checks represent almost all of Telexfree company’s liquid cash. They were parceling it out to the TF branch in Dominica (to retrieve later) Wanzeler’s daughter, a friend/contractor and enough to Telexfree LLC to pay their attorneys and keep the business running during the BK reorganization.
Just a guess, but once the TRO came down they could not transfer any of that money, without being in contempt and that’s why the checks were in the gym bag.
In any event given recent events, I assume the cashier checks will be reversed.
Cashier’s Checks are normally drawn on the bank itself, rather than on any individual account.
The normal way to handle frozen money is to deposit those checks in an interest bearing account controlled by the court.
Such information is not on the check itself. But SEC can always subpoena bank records and figure out what funded that purchase.
As people generally don’t carry briefcases with millions of dollars, it’s safe to assume it’s from an account.
And given that Merrill only have investment account of 1.5 mil, and I’m assuming Wanzeler have something similar, this should be a corporate account, i.e. TelexFree account.
Yes, I think Hoss is trying to check if it’s stated anywhere what funded that those cashier’s checks. But someone had to have PAID the bank for the bank to issue the checks. But SEC would have access to that, we don’t.
One more note about cashier’s checks… I am not 100% sure on this, so someone with contacts in banking can verify this.
Cashier’s check has a purchaser, and recipient.
Cashier’s check is funded by the bank, because the bank was paid by the purchaser for the amount (plus fees).
However, should the purchaser no longer wish to give the check to the recipient, the purchaser can simply deposit the cashier’s check into his or her own account.
Generally, when a business buys a cashier’s check, the business name goes on as the purchaser (remitter?) If I ran Acme Inc, and I’m paying XYZ, the cashier’s check I buy would say (purchased by) Acme Inc.
However, in case of the checks seized, purchasers are either James Merrill or Carlos Wanzeler, NOT TELEXFREE.
There’s apparently a second layer, sort of a backup plan. If the bankruptcy was NOT approved, then they’ll just close the company (liquidation), and put the cashier’s check into their PERSONAL ACCOUNTS (any of them, at any bank, even “Swiss”)
Add that to Merill’s order to liquidate his investment account, in the same testimony, I think we’re looking at a potential grab bag bugout.
I was talking about subject matter jurisdiction, but I didn’t actually check any details. The bankruptcy in Nevada is a “constructed case”, based on the theory that the mailbox company in Nevada actually was the main company.
The bankruptcy court doesn’t have the correct subject matter jurisdiction to reverse the assets freeze TRO. It can’t handle the SEC complaint either. It can only handle the initial steps of the bankruptcy case.
A bankruptcy court and a federal districts court are not “one and the same” in terms of jurisdiction.
Its a duly constituted Nevada company with a Nevada presence filing Bankruptcy in Nevada District Court.
That’s what I figure as well but Merril liquidated six separate funds held at his brokerage account, so at this time there is no way to know how much the account was worth.
That’s pretty slick, Can that really be done>?
I suspect so.
According to most FAQs I read, if the cashier’s check were not “presented for payment” by the intended recipient, but original purchaser and write “not used for intended purpose” and put back.
However, the FAQ never said it had to be back into the same account, or what happens if that account was closed or frozen. I suspect since the purchasers are Wanzeler and Merrill, they *can* put it into any account of theirs, rather than just the TelexFree account it came from.
At the minimum, that amount is NOT in the bank at the time of bankruptcy declaration, and SEC stated that TelexFree had been giving loans and whatnot to various people and entities for the past several months.
Will try to confirm this somehow tomorrow. Any banking experts want to chime in?
(One must also recall Phil Ming Xu of WCM giving Vicente Messina a 5 million non-recourse loan for 5 years just 1 month before WCM got raided by SEC)
He’d be stupid to co-mingle his personal funds with TelexFree’s “corporate” funds, unless he knew SEC is going to freeze his personall accounts too. You can’t really interpret it any other way than “guilty conscience”.
If he’s stupid enough… He’ll probably cook up some story with Joe Craft about “loaning” TelexFree some more money to keep running, and if so, that only proves they are out to screw the affiliates by nullifying the contracts.
And how many millions could he have made, since TelexFree is only “2 years old”, according to themselves? How much could he have made with that cleaning business? Hmmm? It’s certainly not “tens of millions”. Remember, even Herbalife CEO only officially made less than 10 mil a year (rest are stock options and such).
Either way that proves they are out to f*** the affiliates, not to save them.
I have interpreted it to be a mailbox company, but I haven’t checked any details. I’m focusing on realities rather than legal theories, on the actual case rather than hypothetical ones.
Most promoters in the US claimed they joined TelexFree INC in Massachusetts, rather than TelexFree LLC in Nevada. That’s one of the reasons for why I called the bankruptcy case a “constructed case”.
So you are “focusing” on your interpretation without checking any details.
Swell
@ Antonio
That is not all mate, most people who join these pseudo mlm ventures have menial jobs, no educatio and really no feasible way to better their lives. I disagree that most of them are greedy bastards, I’m afraid the vast majority of them is made of frustrated folks looking for a way out of their mediocre life, what makes the whole thing even more sadder and revolting.
I do hope the main TF guys will rot in jail but, to put an end to these sort of crap the authorities will have to go after the middle man too – i.e all the other representatives, the hundreds of small “leaders” who are already taking their flocks to new scams like Paymoy, One Thor, Change Worldwide and god knows what else! THIS SHIT HAS TO STOP!
Put hundreds of these guys away for a few years and that will send a definitive message. Otherwise will be just a matter of months till we start to discuss here about the new Telexfree!
The only way to eradicate a mutating virus is by eliminating the vectors who spread it around!
I’d love to have the opportunity to ask some of these delusional telexfreers a few questions like:
Why do they think the company is legitimate and that it will eventiuay operate again?
Why is it the founder Carlos Wanzeler doesn’t share the same point of view since he was the first to skip town and go into hiding on Sunday before they filed for chapter 11?
He was one of the first to abandon ship while it’s sinking while anoucing for everyone to stay put that everything is ok… As unfortunate and sad as it seems these promotors will be going down with the telexfree ship while the captain is in Mexico drinking piña coladas and margaritas.
If they were smart enough to look for the leadership team right now they would find out they are no where to be found… Wake up telexfreers put on your life jackets and start swimming.
you are doing a great job, but you sound more of a judge than a reporter. i think your report would have been more robust and more matured if you can give benefit of doubt to the other party in question i mean telexfree.
after all the case is still in court. remember a man is presumed innocent until a court of competent jurisdiction proved otherwise.
@shad
This sounds like a rework of the “it’s not a Ponzi scheme until a Judge says so” argument.
There’s nothing wrong with analysing the situation, you’re just upset the analysis doesn’t jive with your own hopes. Any educated person should be able to see where TelexFree’s bankruptcy application is heading.
Bankruptcy Chapter 11 was never intended to be a get out of jail free card for Ponzi schemes, that’s the bottom line.
i think you are understanding me out of contest,your analysis are quite revealing and i appreciate that but am talking of robust report that bring out maturity in your view, it takes the court to know where a case will end up, not just an educated person as you quoted earlier on.
i still want to read your report even after telexfree has been shut down.
@shad
And exactly what magic theory do you think the court is going to deploy here?
They’ll take into consideration TelexFree’s business model and how they paid people. Then it’s game over.
There’s no mystery here. TelexFree was a Ponzi scheme and we all know what happens to them in court.
But please, continue to wave that candle. Maybe this time…
@Shad
Since you’ve just arrived at the party Shad, you may want to go back and read the first articles Oz wrote on Telexfree.
Because they can’t “afford” to think otherwise. It’s denial, Ikea Effect, self-bias, communal reinforcement, sunk cost effect, and the rest rolled all into one.
To believe the company’s a scam would be to admit they had been scammed, they are stupid and gullible AND greedy, and they trusted scammers, most of whom they knew well.
I think what Oz is trying to say is that if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, you don’t need the Supreme Court of the US telling you it’s a duck 10 years from now