TelexFree Court Status – 24th April 2014
There has been a whole bunch of stuff filed in the last 48 hours and, rather than write separate updates for each motion and ruling, I figured it’d be of more use to provide a summary of TelexFree’s current legal status.
Last we checked in the SEC had filed a motion requesting TelexFree’s bankruptcy application be moved to Massachusetts, and the Department of Justice had petitioned for the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee. If granted, that would put the DoJ in charge of TelexFree’s application and the company itself.
TelexFree also managed to delay the scheduled April 24th preliminary injunction hearing. A new hearing to decide whether a preliminary injunction should be enetered against defendants Joe Craft, Carlos Wanzeler and Jim Merrill has been scheduled for May 7th.
A hearing to decide whether a preliminary injunction should be granted against the remaining defendants (Faith Sloan, Randy Crosby, Santiago De La Rosa, Sann Rodrigues and Steve Labriola), has been scheduled for April 25th.
In the meantime, the temporary restraining order remains in place (currently till the April 25th hearing).
As of the closing of April 24th, here’s where we’re currently at.
Motions Filed
1. Certain Portions of the TRO violate the automatic stay that comes with a Chapter 11 filing (TelexFree, April 23rd)
TelexFree are arguing that they should be able to ‘operate their business in the ordinary course‘. They’ve as such asked the court to grant them relief from sections of the TRO that prohibit them from conducting “ordinary business”.
Specifically, TelexFree are asking the court to prohibit the SEC from ‘enforc(ing) a judgment against the Debtors or seeking to recover assets from the other defendants or third parties as a result of an alleged Ponzi Scheme‘.
They are also asking that the court rule the following points in the TRO invalid:
- IV – Prohibits TelexFree and management from ‘withdrawing, selling, paying, transferring, dissipating, assigning, pledging, alienating, encumbering,
disposing of, or diminishing the value of any assets and funds in their possession or under their control (also freezes bank accounts) - V – Freezes TelexFree and management’s funds and assets (similar to IV)
- VI – Orders TelexFree and management to provide the SEC with details of any and all their financial activities between January 1st 2012 to the present
- VII – Orders TelexFree and management to deposit all funds fraudulently obtained from affiliate investors into a bank account overseen by the court
- VIII – Prohibits TelexFree and management from accepting any new investments from affiliates
- IX – Prohibits TelexFree and management ‘from destroying, mutilating, concealing, altering, disposing, or transferring custody of any items’ that relates to the operation of TelexFree
- X – Grants the SEC approval to conduct discovery and depositions on TelexFree management and top investors (used for information gathering)
2. Request to exceed page limit in TRO objection (TelexFree, April 23rd)
This a brief motion, with TelexFree asking the court to grant them permission to exceed the 20 page standard limit in their previously filed TRO objection motion (motion #1 in this list).
3. Objection to SEC’s request to expedite decision on moving the bankruptcy application to Massachusetts (TelexFree, April 24th)
TelexFree are objecting to the SEC’s request that they be granted an expedited hearing (April 30th) for their motion to move the bankruptcy application to Massachusetts. TelexFree are asking that the hearing be held on May 2nd, along with the First Day Order final hearing currently scheduled.
4. Request to expedite hearing on TRO violation motion (TelexFree, April 24th)
TelexFree have filed a motion asking the court to grant them an expedited hearing for the TRO objection (motion #1 on this list).
TelexFree are claiming ‘irreparable harm will result to the Debtors’ business operations and ability to reorganize’ if the motion is not heard quickly, and have asked it be included in the motions to be heard on May 2nd.
5. Opposition to TRO against TelexFree, management and top-promoters (Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa, April 24th)
Opposition to the TRO currently in place affecting defendants in the SEC complaint, Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa.
6. Motion for preliminary injunction against Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa (SEC, April 24th)
With a hearing date set for April 25th, this is a motion filed by the SEC for a preliminary injunction to be granted against TelexFree top affiliates, Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa.
Orders
1. Hearing for the moving of bankruptcy application to Massachusetts (April 24th)
The Judge has granted the SEC’s motion to expedite the hearing on their application to move the bankruptcy case out of Nevada, but did not grant the 30th of April date requested. Instead, the SEC’s motion will be heard on May the 2nd.
2. Approval of the employment of Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC (April 24th)
Order approving TelexFree’s application to employ Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC (KCC) as their claims and noticing agent.
Note that this order prohibits KCC from opening any bank accounts for TelexFree and collecting any of the $350,000 retainer paid to them (without prior approval from the court).
3. Authorization of “Joint Administration of Chapter 11 cases” (April 24th)
Consolidates the bankruptcy applications filed for TelexFree LLC, TelexFree Inc. and TelexFree Financial under one joint administration. Prior to this order the three bankruptcy applications had three separate case numbers.
4. Granting of Motion to exceed page limit in TRO objection (April 24th)
Order approving the TRO objection filed by TelexFree (#1 on the “Motions Filed” list of this update), to exceed the standard 20 pages.
5. Meeting of Creditors (April 24th)
A meeting of TelexFree’s creditors (parties they owe money to) has been set for May 22nd. Creditors are advised they have 90 days to file a proof of claim after the May 22nd meeting.
TelexFree victims are hereby prohibited from
contacting (TelexFree) by telephone, mail, or otherwise to demand repayment, taking actions to collect money or obtain property from the debtor, repossessing the debtor’s property and starting or continuing lawsuits or foreclosures.
Additionally,
Confirmation of chapter 11 plan may result in discharge of debts, which may include all or part of your debt.
A discharge means that you may never try to collect the debt from the debtor (TelexFree).
Important Upcoming Dates
- April 25th (Massachusetts) – Hearing to decide whether a preliminary injunction should be granted against defendants Steven Labriola, Randy Crosby, Faith Sloan, Sann Rodrigues and Santiago De La Rosa
- May 2nd (Nevada) – Multiple motions will be heard at this hearing, including the final First Day Orders in the bankruptcy application, the SEC’s request to move the bankruptcy proceedings to Massachusetts
- May 7th (Massachusetts) – Hearing in the SEC case to decide on whether a preliminary injunction will be granted against TelexFree, Carlos Wanzeler, Jim Merrill and Joe Craft.
- May 22nd (Nevada) – First meeting of TelexFree creditors
Final Thoughts
Having read what’s been filed recently, the attempts by TelexFree to use the bankruptcy court to absolve them of legal responsibilities for the running of a 1 billion dollar Ponzi scheme are painfully obvious.
In addition to rushing to “beat” the regulatory complaints against them, the thrust of their arguments now revolve around the bankruptcy claims taking precedent over any regulatory action against them. Sounds ridiculous but that’s the angle they’re adopting.
How that’s going to translate in court when the dust settles remains to be seen, but given the unlikelihood the judiciary develop amnesia and wipe them a clean slate, we’ll just have to see how this plays out for now.
Going forward, if a whole bunch of filings are again made I’ll do another update – otherwise we’ll stick to the standard article format. Any feedback on this style of update (whether it’s helpful or not, any improvements etc.) would be appreciated.
Great update. Very concise. Please check my understanding of the preliminary v permanent injunction dynamics. Thx
I could’ve sworn I read “permanent injunction in one of the SEC filings, so that’s why I’ve been using it. Still, if it’s changed to preliminary injunction (or I just read it wrong) we should be using that term I guess. I’ll update today and yesterday’s article to reflect that.
Cheers for the pickup.
Greetings,
I’m living in Peru where a few people I know have been victimized by this whole Telexfree mess. I tried warning them a few months ago before they got in but stopped when I tired of hearing myself called negative for doubting the legitimacy of the structure. They didn’t know who Bernie Madoff was.
Anyway, now many are confused. I’ve been following the story for them as best I can, thanks to this very informative site. Some down here are holding on to hope that things turn around and go back to the way they were and even believe the Telexfree story that being granted bankruptcy will be good.
I don’t think the people uplines/higher up on the pyramid here are getting accurate info. I’ve read about the creditor’s meeting scheduled for 22 May in Vegas. They won’t be going. Does anyone have an idea about how victims/affiliates/creditors in other countries can file a claim?
Hello, OZ. First, congrats! Nice article! I am a brazilian pyramid hunter =)
Well, i want to share a piece of information: brazilian top leaders are just getting out of the sinking boat as fast as they can. Pelé Reis, one of the most important ´´leaders´´ just quit TELEXFREE and entered BBOM.
I will try to provide some more info of the top ROACHES in the next hours, so as you say, stay tunned…
Bookmark the following website, visit it, poke around and check it about once a month. It should eventually tell you all you need to know about filing a claim.
http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree
The website’s “Proof of Claim Form” link permits you to download a generic Federal BK form that individuals must use to file a claim. Take a look at that.
It appears that KCC will be the authorized claim processor for the Telexfree Bankruptcy. That may change so check their website periodically to see if that has changed and determine when the claim submission process opens and closes and where to submit your claim.
Here are some points for what they are worth, IMO:
1. Sann Rodrigues, primary recruiter and organizer. In Boston, set up front men to promote TelexFree. Him and these front men need to be investigated and the money trailed traced.
2. Most of the Brazilians promoting TelexFree in the U.S. are visa overstayers that have gamed the system via ITN numbers and possibly fake social security numbers. U.S. immigration officials should investigate not just the ringleaders of the organization but also second and third tiers set up by top promoters for violation of Tax and Immigration laws as well.
3. It would be wise to check any “drawer contracts” between Sann Rodrigues and TF company owners. He is no victim but a key person in the the entire TF system.
Based on his past, he’s extremely likely to have hidden funds in cash, gold and other means through friends and relatives, deeded real estate, etc. That’s the big fish authorities do not want to escape the law.
In Brazil he is known to have left a track record among people and investors involved in the VoIP industry in the state of Minas Gerais.
4. The more time they are allocated, the more they can launder funds or transfer cash for after the dust settles, counting that nobody will go to prison, especially if they are protected under U.S. Bankruptcy Laws.
5. Disque-A-Vontade – better check how they got paid from all this TF fiasco and do a money trail there as well.
6. Money buys green cards. U.S. immigration should dig into how top ringleaders became legal residents and go after the ones that are visa overstayers. (Mostly promoters in the Boston area and others in Florida).
7. Reclameaqui.com.br has thousands of complaints from Brazilians who invested millions into the schemes.
I think that the top guys and promoters and simply trying to avoid prosecution, trying to buy time in order to get as much money as possible and then, if they are not convicted of fraud, they will simply disappear.
While people wait for court proceedings, who is overseeing that no funds are being hidden or transferred?
SEC has some of the best forensic accountants anywhere. They’re the ones who told the court that TelexFree had been transferring millions here and there to everybody related to telexFree.
This includes companies that never operated (but is declaring bankruptcy any way), foreign companies (Dominicana), companies owned by principals but NOT related to TelexFree (real estate in NV), plus relatives and wives (Katia and Livia).
When it comes to presenting the court about the individual defendents, expect a lot more bombshells.
Jordan Maglich over at Ponzitracker.com should have a guide on how to fill the form some time next week.
helo, can the court grant telexfree bankruptcy cover without looking closely into the structure they have on ground to legitimately restructure the company and also pay back their debt? how do think they can scale this hurdle?
What I don’t get is the following: This guy, Sann Rodrigues, top promoter for Telexfre… He had serious problems with SEC in 2006 (due to a previous scam, as we can see in the internet)… Why wasn’t he eventually arrested (back in 2006) ?
Oz, thank you very much for the update, it is indeed quite informative and helpful and serves as reference.
However, there seems to be missing an important date, the 7 May hearing (SEC vs. Telexfree), or is this date still not certain for that hearing?
The SEC doesn’t have the power to arrest or gaol offenders.
It can only apply “administrative” or “civil” penalties.
The usual procedure in these type of cases is that the SEC institutes civil action via the court, which effectively stops the fraud / fraudsters in their tracks and freezes any and all assets, which allows other agencies to complete their investigations thoroughly without having the added pressure of the perpetrators being able to escape with the loot.
As we are seeing with TF, under criminal law, it is entirely possible for the fraudsters to delay proceedings for 2 or 3 years, giving them the opportunity to hide the proceeds and disappear before the matter actually makes it into court.
For example, Andy Bowdoin who ran the AdSurf Daily ponzi fraud, managed to drag things out for around 4 years before he was eventually gaoled.
Without the SEC civil action and freeze, he would have had years to hide the proceeds and / or escape the country with them.
It’s not the ideal way to do it, but, it sure as h*** works.
@kin
No. It all has to be gone over.
They can’t. On paper they owe $1 billion in monopoly money, and nobody except affiliates were buying VOIP.
Mathematically no amount of restructuring is going to help here. If TelexFree had any retail strength, they would have launched with that instead of the Ponzi scheme.
Just look at Disk Vontade (Telex99), they made so little over the years before TelexFree it doesn’t even rate a mention.
@Roberto
Not sure of the specifics but I believe he had to pay back his winnings and a fine. Jail isn’t always a certainty in Ponzi / pyramid cases.
This time around though it’s looking much worse (he’s clearly a repeat offender).
@Restelo
Thanks, forgot to add that.
Not to mention that 90% of all Boston,New Jersey and Florida TelexFree promoters are allegedly visa overstayers and illegal immigrants.
Hello … I am an advocate and promoter of telexfree … but I thank you for showing you a different side of the story … at heart I hope with all my heart that this a mistake with everything you say … but I thank you for informing me … do not stop doing … many thanks …
Hi Oz. Maybe I understand why the Telexfree want to delay the process. And why they want to the site go back online.
Simple, they sell the VOIP package to a lot of people. This VOIP expire after 30 days. So, if it is working, you can use it! Then, they are not in debt about it, they did offer the voip they sell.
Genius…
A thousand thank you’s for the information, Hoss.
The Federal District Court in Massachusetts issued an order freezing all known accounts connected to Telexfree. The SEC was able to identify approximately 30 entities that held or transmitted money for them These banks/transmitters have been put on notice that they may not transfer any funds per the Court Order. In the meantime the search is on for other assets.
Think with your brain rather than with your heart? 🙂
Most of the promoters KNEW (instinctively) that something wasn’t right, but they HOPED it would last long enough to make a profit. They were “blinded by hope”, blinded by what they HOPED and WANTED to be true.
TelexFree is trying to eliminate all debt related to the old contracts = no more payouts to the promoters from the old contracts.
The telex free website is up again, Is this legal as all this is going on?
Perfectly legal as there is no restraining order issued regarding the website.
In practical terms whether or not the website is “up” or not makes no difference AND it’s being watched closely.
Only a complete fool would try and do anything through the website when it is under so much scrutiny.
He claimed to be ignorant of the legalities (probably on advice of his attorney, widely believed to be Gerald Nehra, the current legal advisor of TelexFree) and since it was his first offense and the business was relatively young (only a few months) he was ordered to give up all the money, assessed a fine, told to not do that again, and let go.
And technically he haven’t ran a scam since. He’s only in TelexFree as a promoter (so we’re told).
Except they don’t make any money on VOIP. Remember, VOIP revenue (not profit, REVENUE!) for 2 years, as provided by Merrill himself, is just over a million dollars. They haven’t even paid DiskAvontade for the cost yet. Massachusetts was just going by the credit card receipts TelexFree provided for the audit.
In addition to the fact there is no restraining order covering the website, technically, the website is listed as being registered to Disk a Vontade and not Telexfree itself
One possibility is to “expedite” the process the judge allowed KCC to proceed while the other parties TelexFree, Massachusetts, SEC, et al, argue over what to do.
KCC is in California, Tennessee, and New York. They’re not in Nevada or Massachusetts. They don’t really care where the case is. They can still help “administer” it, at either location.
Second, there are more than one way to defeat TelexFree. They are
1) Stop the bankruptcy altogether and instead have receiver take over
2) Move the bankruptcy to Boston then try 3 and 4
3) Ask court to appoint trustee to take over the company (rather than let the company itself reorganize itself)
4) Convert chapter 11 (reorganization) to chapter 7 (liquidation)
We are hoping for 1), but it appears that SEC is going for 2, 3, and 4.
Even if SEC loses 2), court will likely adopt 3) based on recommendation of US Trustees, who will then ask for 4).
All roads lead to Rome, so to speak.
We not lost only money anymore,see this Very Sad news,
San Rodrigues is one those big promoter in Dominican Republic,Hi should be hold accountable for this.
http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2014/4/25/51272/NYC-woman-says-Telex-Free-scam-caused-6-suicides-in-Dominican-town
*sigh*
“A papaya puesta, papaya partida.”
(Literal translation: a papaya served is a papaya eaten. Rough translation: if you’re a sucker for scams, expect to be scammed)
If you really sincerely wish that a scam is not a scam, you’ll only attract more scams.
In Brazil there had been a few suicide attempts too. At least one death confirmed… from 2013.
Cambodia starts investigation on TelexFree, warns public about get-rich-quick schemes, will pursue all related schemes.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/secc-targets-investor-scams
Well presented KC
I just read a filing of a Proposed Preliminary Injuction against two promoters, Rodrigues (?) and Crosby.
I thought it was innovative. It uses the “power of the pyramid” to bind all the downlines and associates of the two and permits e-mail, letter or fax notice to effect this.
What applies to the peak of the pyramid promoter applies to all those beneath. It has not been approved yet but that’s what the SEC has asked for
It enjoins selling the program, making false representations, transferring money etc. and indicates that all funds received from Telexfree must be deposited with the Court.
Obviously compliance is going to be an issue but there it is.
Oh and there is a classic declaration (recently docketed) by one of the SEC office boys who called Faith Sloan. This one is suitable for framing.
I read that they’re trying to reject the old and “new” contracts, all the existing contracts in fact. IOW, take everybody’s money and go on as if nothing happened ! I can’t believe that any judge could grant them this. It would be shameful.
Was reading the same on PatrickPretty. The “why me?” excuse is a Ponzi cliche, though usually applied to Social Security, Big Corp, etc. Rare to see it applied to oneself.
Only the “old” contracts. The “new” contracts was specifically approved by “I see no Ponzi” Nehra to be legal! 😉 (that’s meant as sarcasm, in case you didn’t understand the winkie)
I read in Doc 18 KCC website (I think it was) under the Relief Request portion of that document where they were seeking to reject “all contracts new and old”. The excuse given was that the old was a substantial drain to the company and the new also had to be revised as it was “not profitable”. Go and check it out…
That will probably be the weakest point in their defense system, along with “cooking the books”.
Most promoters used funds from the back office to pay for mandatory VOIP subscriptions to fake customers = no monetary transactions = no revenue or profit generated from the sale.
Some people gave the suscriptions away for free, some tried to sell them as “air time” privately = no revenue or profit for TelexFree. Revenue and profit are about MONEY, about real monetary transactions.
The previous principals have resigned or left the board. Presumptively they have no managerial role in Telexfree any longer.
The Company is now being managed by a 15 year veteran of multi level marketing companies. His stated intention is to clean up Telexfree, comply with SEC mandates, pursue money that rightfully belongs to the company and set a course for profitability based on something called a Telexfree App.
YOu may not believe a word of any of that, but that is what is being represented to the Court. For any of that to be even the slightest bit believable to the judge the “new” Telexfree must distance itself from all that has gone before.
The contracts are a legacy to the past “problems” brought on by “overly rapid growth” and they have to go. Telexfree can not afford to pay them anyway.
So you’re saying that just because the old management had this “escape’ plan after they took hundreds of millions from innocent people to file chapter 11 then it’s OK for the judge to let them move on?
So why don’t we all form a ponzi scheme, take millions, hide that away in some small caribbean bank and then get a new CEO for our company? Under the pretense that – hey, we made a mistake, now it’ll be all good with our new CEO ! While they drive away form the court’s parking lot in their new Lambo Aventador….
There’s got to be a way for all the suckers to get their money somehow, even if it’s half of what they invested.
TelexFree Bankruptcy was separate from the SEC lawsuit against the 8 individuals. Don’t be so pessimistic.
K CHANG Thank you!!!
However no justice will be served if when the dust settles Sann goes away to the Bahamas or Europe or some obscure place along with the others and IMO, unless the Justice System brings down the hammer on these guys, they will simply open another Ponzi scheme again ala Sann Rodrigues.
It’s all a big waste of time and effort if nobody goes to jail and if investors and creditors are not compensated for their losses. It mocks justice.
No, I don’t think its OK but I don’t make the rules. I just mentioned the angle they are using and why the contracts are toast.
TelexFree paid their lawyers $750,000 on April 11th (the same day they withdrew a bunch of cash and cleaned out TelexFree’s bank accounts).
$55,000 has already been paid in fees out of the $750,000, and that’s on top of the $350,000 they paid KCC on retainer.
I guess that explains where $1 million of affiliate investor money wound up. And it seems everyone’s getting their beak wet with TelexFree Ponzi money.
Well, everyone except the investors (whose money it is).
http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140425000000000003
@hoss
I read that yesterday lol. Was going to publish it when the SEC file their preliminary injunction application against Sloan and Rodrigues (in case any more juicy quotes popped up as declarations).
Yep, he set himself up that way, but all the lunches, guidances on how to run the business, being on the front line of each country opened, Brazil, mexico, DR, Spain, etc. and paying people to be on his front downline, etc.
Do you really think two Janitors (merrill and wanzeler) made it grow the way it did? Right now these guys are probably laughing, knowing that they will get a slap in the wrist, won’t face deportation even though the condition of their visas or green cards are based on not committing federal offenses and they most likely have put money away a long time ago so that even if the TF empire is turned to rubble, they will have enough cash put away for the rest of their lives.
And, The Carlos Costa guy? The excuse maker for TF? What happens to him? Nothing. So, basically, running a ponzi scheme only has business punishment and nothing personal. But the losses to investors are all very personal to them.
I say, file felony charges where applicable and make an example of these con artists, unless of course, they are innocent. Sann cannot claim ignorance anymore. He was prohibited from selling anything that had to do with securities. As a promoter, he was violating the SEC sanction.
If nobody goes to jail, well, too bad I guess. Sucker born every minute. They win, the victims lose. They remain rich and others, well, some lost everything.
Like the saying goes, life isn’t fair. Let’s see whether the Justice System will teach these guys a lesson or not. One thing is for sure, none of them will go back to live in Brazil.
Holy fuck.
TelexFree also paid their other lawyers, Greenberg Traurig $4.28 million dollars
Once again, that’s affiliate investor money CEO in hiding Stuart Macmillan is splashing around.
TF have already racked up over $500,000 in legal fees, which has been subtracted from the above figure.
http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140425000000000008
@Oz does that mean they are paying their way out of the hole??
(whose money it was)
A bankruptcy Plan of Reorganization is unconfirmable unless it incorporates a method to pay the “professionals” in full. Administrative costs can easily amount to 30% of the estates assets.
That $750,000 is unfotunately a drop in the bucket. Las Vegas Bk attorneys at Gorden and Silver bill at $750-$850 an hour.
It means they’re paying their lawyers to throw everything at the bankruptcy case.
They’re trying to get away with running the world’s biggest Ponzi scheme, under the guise of a legitimate company going bankrupt. It’s a farce and mockery of the US legal system.
When American Airlines went BK the attorney bills were $1 million a day for several years. It all came out of the stockholder investment and the employees pay and pension.
Greenburg is billing at around $750 + per hour also.
I haven’t seen an order from the preliminary injunction hearing today, but the SEC memorandum states both Santiago De La Rosa and Randy Crosby refused to hand over their accounting details as ordered on April 16th, and also ignored a request for discovery on their bank accounts and current balances, total money paid to and withdrawn from TelexFree, total money paid by their respective downlines.
The SEC are using that and quotes from presentations to build a case around Crosby and De La Rosa being in on the scam.
I hvae to say I find it curious there’s no mention of Rodrigues or Sloan in these latest filings, they all concentrate on De La Rosa and Crosby.
If these guys do not go to jail I’ll also mount a ponzi scheme.
I’m here talking to my daughter 9 Years old of that can do nothing wrong in life you can not go to jail, to seeing several people who promoted this shit already and promoting other ponzi and laughing face of the people still talking about it will not come to anything regrettable!
Sorry for my english I’m a Brazilian and my English is not the native language.
Not deportation, please!
Anyone that can pay 4.2 million dollars to lawyers can manage to stay away from jail in Brazil for a looooong time! It’s sad but it’s true. Too many years until the case goes to court and, even after declared guilt, too many appeals possible. And you don’t go to jail while appealing.
Update: The Nevada bankruptcy court has added the topic of ‘whether the interests of creditors and the various debtors are better served by the suspension of all proceeding in these jointly administered cases‘ for discussion at the May 2nd hearing.
I believe this covers the request for the movement of the case to Massachusetts, and the DoJ’s request to appoint a Chapter 11 trustee.
From the language used above and the name of the notice (“notice of hearing regarding abstention”), it sounds like the entire bankruptcy application getting tossed out is a possibility too.
http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140425000000000012
This guys have to go to the jail or we are going to see ponzi schemes everywhere.
Sounds like the bankruptcy judge may just punt the case to Massachusetts at the request of the DOJ. If that happens watch out for criminal charges and bye bye bankruptcy protection.
The Massachusetts District Judge will probably enter a permanent injunction order against all of these guys if the bankruptcy judge punts her the entire case. LOLOL
And the smaller promoters will have to return money returned?
What is going to happen with I-payout? they allowed transactions knowing that Telexfree was a ponzi scheme or was laundering money, they should double checked their application after other processor terminated service.
If authorities don’t do something with I-payout the next thing that we are going to see is that I-payout is going to add to their features “we allow ponzi schemes work with us”
iPayout’s client list is a regulator’s wet dream.
I’m sure their name will come up in future filings (the SEC have already mentioned obtaining data from TelexFree’s payment processor).
I’m suspected for a while Sann Rodrigues is a silent partner in TelexFree. Right now unless Merrill and Wanzeler is willing to drag down Sann Rodrigues in public there’s really very little proof of that… that we’ve seen. SEC is sure not going to reveal all of what they know… just yet.
That’d be up to the Brazilian courts.
Possibility is those two want a separate deal from the rest, and instructed their lawyers to do so… possibly cooperation in return for leniency.
Hearing in Boston started 15 mins ago.
I’m going to catch some sleep, will update when I wake up (hopefully the order is out then).
I wonder who is applying the brakes. The Court?
6 Dominicans have committed suicide due telexfree.
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Felnuevodiario.com.do%2Fapp%2Farticle.aspx%3Fid%3D372345&edit-text=&act=url
Sann Rodrigues doesn’t have all the experience needed, e.g. to set up money laundering.
Joe Craft has probably been engaged right from the start, July 2012 or earlier. I’m pretty sure John Ewing and Paul T. Adams have been involved too. Adams, Craft and Ewing are the agents who registered Merrill’s and Wanzeler’s Nevada entities.
ADAMS, CRAFT & EWING LLLP (Active), 2010-03-03
BWFC PROCESSING CENTER, LLC (CRA) (Active) 2012-08-29
I have a list of over 1,200 companies to check, the companies that have used BWFC PROCESSING CENTER LLC as registered agent in Nevada. I will probably use realscam.com to post some results.
Is it just me, or does anybody else wish the hearing are televised?
I was going through some older KCC documents and found a few more interesting bits.
1) They are going to close TelexFree Massachusetts and replace it with TelexFree Florida (According to A&M their restructuring advisor)
2) They want to throw out ALL of the comp plan before bankruptcy, not the AdCentral, not even the revised. EVERYTHING. “They are a severe drain on the business”
3) They even lied to A&M… They told A&M their biyearly revenue is 1 billion dollars.
Basically, the entire filing is a lie.
I’d go for that.
Here is a possible reason (excerpted from Docket #0108)
…
Debtors = Telexfree
Counterparties = Promoters/affiliates
…
“The Debtors (as defined in the Motion) entered into various enrollment agreements with over 700,000 parties allowing these parties to utilize and/or promote the Company’s services. A vast majority of these Counterparties are located overseas and have not provided Debtors with a physical mailing address, making traditional mail notice virtually impossible by Debtors on a timely basis.
Therefore:
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that when the Debtors are obligated to notice the various Counterparties pursuant to the Bankruptcy Rules, the Debtors shall be authorized to serve the Counterparties via (a) electronic mail at the email address provided to the Debtors and/or (b) through the Back Office.”
I hope nobody thought that gaining access to their Back Office meant business as usual.
Update: The court heard the arguments for a preliminary injunction against the defendants and has taken the matter under advisement, with an order to be published on or before April 30th.
In the interim, the TRO against Faith Sloan, Sann Rodrigues, TelexFree and Steven Labriola remains in effect till May 8th.
The TRO against Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa remains in effect until April 30th.
Looks like the decision of entering a preliminary injunction against TelexFree, Labriola, Sloan and Rodrigues, has been grouped into the hearing already scheduled for May 7th (which covers Wanzeler, Merrill and Craft).
There’s been a bunch of bankruptcy filings too so I’ll put up another update.
Has anyone noticed that judge Denise J. Casper (Boston court) jumped out of the case under 28 U.S. Code § 455 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/455)? Any idea about the reason for that?
I noted it but not sure what the reason was. She didn’t provide one in the filing so it’s a bit of a mystery.
FYI this is 28 U.S. Code § 455:
My first thought was that someone in her family or a friend invested or has a relationship with someone who has. Just a thought.
I appreciate if this is the reason that she was thoughtful enough to turn it over now so that it wouldn’t cause an issue later.
That was my line of thinking too. $90 million or so (from memory?) was invested by Massachusetts residents so it’s plausible.
sigh….
Should we call Batman or not yet?
In other news, Brazil Acre’s Judiciary has published yesterday, April 25th, that “due diligence [is] to be performed by the audit company in the office of the defendant company, on April 29, 2014, at 09 o’clock, at which time the latter shall meet the requests listed in the petition pp. 9.592/9.594”.
It seems E&Y guys will make a field trip to TF/Ympactus’ office next Tuesday.
I am quite interested about what they’ll find there, since Wanzeler was alredy fined for telling that they had no access to any TF’s data, when previously requested to provide promoters names, sold VoIP numbers and things like that.
Source here (in portuguese).
I thought they closed Ympactus’ office? And I imagine Costa has already destroyed any incriminating evidence since then.
In any event, he still has three days to get to it (I’m assuming he still has access to the office).
All that remains in there is probably a print out of the “our customers used eleventy billion VOIP minutes last Februray” press-release TelexFree spammed out a few weeks ago.
How on earth can you make a statement like that ??
You have absolutely no idea what Sann Rodrigues knows or doesn’t know and/or what he has been up to and/or whether he has been able to thus far been able to successfully disguise any money laundering activities.
Weird enough, even after Carlos Costa bragging about how legal TF/Ympactus is because they pay every taxes, promoters were complaining that they could not get their DIRPF 2014 form (Brazilian version of the IRS 1099 form).
According to Brazil’s laws, any company must have provided that information until Feb. 28th. In not doing so, they are subject to fines and administrative penalties.
Anyway, it seems like, despite CC saying that they gladly pay what they must pay, they haven’t provided any information that would allow people to fill their RFB (IRS) forms. Knowing that RFB had already fined TF/Ympactus in millions of Brazilian Reais, it is no surprise that CC was telling more lies.
Well, as funny as it may seem, and just 5 days before the final date Brazilians have to submit their RFB forms (April 30th), Ympactus provided a form in their website “transparenciaympactus.com” that would allow people to obtain their 1099-form-like information.
Note that they did not release any FB update, nor was CC screaming and shouting (and sweating) in YT about how glorious and amazing they were in providing what any compacy should provide months ago.
I’m not sure about from what database they are getting that information from, but it caught my attention that the form is being published in a IP only (no FQDN) address (67.205.96.114/~ympactus).
Playing with some route tracing tools, it doesn’t seem to come from any TF’s or Ympactus’ websites hosts. I also see people complaining that it does not matter what they input, the result is always “no records found”.
Maybe just some more smoke and another attempt to fool people into thinking TF/Ympactus is suuuuuper legit and legal.
Indeed they have (without warning anyone). But local news say they keep some people working there (no surprise if “some people” are their FB censors who remove any “negative” comment and block users away or CC’s Youtube crew).
Oopsy doopsy… I guess both Brazilians and Americans will face RFB/IRS problems: TelexFree sends alleged victims parting shot
Source: The Boston Globe.
It seems to me this is a trap made by a third party to collect data about telexfree affiliates.
Possible uses:
1) Make a database of fools to target at other scam;
2) Send phishing mail that seems legit even to a security aware person because it has the target’s CPF and knows the target is a telexfree affiliate. Example: fake notifications from brazilian IRS asking for more personal details.
Perhaps a better question is… Is it LEGAL to “publicize” one’s tax information like that in Brazil?
You mean, by simply asking for two somewhat “public” pieces of information that any person may have about you? Irresposible, yes, but I don’t think it is illegal per se.
Companies in Brazil may use (and they do use) electronic media to deliver that information. Of course, any company usually send it through private e-mail address or publish it in a restricted access internet/intranet site.
In TF’s case, it seems possible (but maybe not so easy) to just Google for some promoter’s e-mail and CPF (SSN-like Brazilian document) and log into TF’s IRS-site.
I’m not sure one could file any complaint about information security because it is somehow not publicly available (they demand people to log on using promoter data) and people should not publish their CPF number over the internet (as it may be used in several bad and wrong ways).
I don’t think so… It is published under Ympatus’ “Transparency” website (there’s a banner and a link in that site menu/homepage), although the form itself is published in some unknown host using who knows what data source.
Massachusetts wants to know about YOUR TelexFree complaint. Please let Bill Galvin and his staff know YOUR story. (thanks to PatrickPretty.com for spotting it first)
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/InvestorComplaint/telexfree.aspx
Now the promoters will flood them with how Telexfree changed their lives.
I have compared it to other Ponzi scheme cases, e.g. to SpeakAsia Online. You will need specific types of education to “cook the books” and manipulate data. Joe Craft, Paul T. Adams and John Ewing have the correct type of education, the correct type of experience, the correct type of network.
Joe Craft was placed in a position where he controlled the flow of money in all different directions. He’s most likely part of the group of organizers behind TelexFree.
You can bet on Sann Rodrigues as the main organizer, but I will bet on the 3 others.
I have been listening to people’s descriptions for how Telexfree first was introduced to people in “positions”, e.g. in Madeira and Dominican Republic. Sann Rodrigues doesn’t have the right qualities to attract people like that, e.g. his involvment in previous scams is a red flag.
How incredibly dishonest of you to change a quote to suit your purpose, M_Norway.
Let’s try again, shall we ??
You have no possible idea how much Sann Rodrigues has learned since his first conviction, you also have no possible idea of who Sann Rodrigues knows and any or all of the contacts he has acquired over time.
None of us do.
I can confirm that all the initial contacts we’ve had in our family suggesting we should join Telexfree by early 2013 were made by people in elitist social circles. It was not by the archetypal Ponzi pimp.
“Suit my purpose”? I identified the context of the quote. You shouldn’t have any problems with that?
I’m not very interested in discussing something out of context. My original post was post #66:
You focused on the first sentence only, and ignored the context. I identified the context. You shouldn’t have any problems with that?
Reading something in the context it has been presented is actually the most normal way to read it, if you want to discuss something. It will prevent misinterpretations and fruitless discussions where people are discussing completely different types of ideas.
You shouldn’t have any problems with that?
I didn’t focus on Sann Rodrigues experience, but on the TYPE of experience needed, e.g. to set up money laundering in a wide scale. Adams, Craft and Ewing seems to have the correct type of experience.
“None of us do” is certainly correct, and that’s why I didn’t try to analyse his experience either. Your point would only have made some sense if I had tried to analyse Sann Rodrigues’ experience, but the post didn’t try to do that.
We [my family] were contacted here in Madeira in early 2013 by a seasoned bank worker/stock broker, people in the Government, and well known business people. It was even proposed to us to join the business at cost zero, borrowing the credits.
We were told it was a legitimate business in huge expansion, and that lots of influential people had already joined in, including top figures from the local government and finance inspectors (this was shown to be true). We were told at that time it was Telexfree which was holding the island economy together behind the scenes.
We always refused, and thankfully so. We would certainly have won a lot of money if we joined by then, but at what price? Ill-gained money, social disrespect, and even the possibility of clawbacks. We’re not crooks.
I deliberately chose to point out the single error in your logic as a response to your habit of posting long, meandering and error ridden opinion as “fact”
Pointing out the context of something and identifying a topic more clearly shouldn’t be considered “dishonest”? The method I used will help both you and me and all others to interpret it more correctly.
1. Jamil Junior introduced Sann Rodrigues as a potential “main organizer”, “the one with a lot of experience from previous scams”.
2. I pointed out that he doesn’t seem to have the right type of experience and knowledge for that position, and introduced 3 other potential “main organizers”.
Any objections to that should normally have been about “potential main organizers”, e.g. “they don’t seem to have the right type either”. The focus on Sann Rodrigues’ experience derailed from that logic.
Then there are the important questions:
1) Who recruited them?
2) Generally people like that will weigh social costs / risks . What made them feel this is worth pushing?
Generally people in the higher social circles have better sense of what’s a scam and what’s suspicious. For a scam to hit the “elite circles”, as you put it, would require some really vulnerable individuals who no longer care about the risk to their reputation, and spread from there.
Focus on the topic rather than on your own motives? And the focus on my posting habits seems to be rather irrelevant?
I can only reply to one part of that comment, the “point out the single error in your logic”.
From my point of view, you have misinterpreted a statement = interpreted it to be a part of a logical conclusion. I’m not able to identify exactly HOW you have interpreted it, there’s some missing parts in the logic.
I have already explained the logic in post #98, and I don’t think it will need to be repeated. It has 2 numbered arguments and 1 conclusion.
Rationalize, justify and lay blame all you like, you have no idea whether Sann Rodrigues has any experience in the area of money laundering.
In context, out of context, it doesn’t matter, your statement was “Sann Rodrigues doesn’t have all the experience needed, e.g. to set up money laundering”
In view of you Judge ta side Telexfree?
I have never CLAIMED to have it either? You simply misinterpreted what that part of the comment was about.
The focus in the post wasn’t about Sann Rodrigues’ experience. It was about potential main organizers. And I have already replied to the part about Sann Rodrigues’ experience.
What about this response?
“You’re absolutely right, I clearly posted that statement in post #66”.
That response should clarify that there’s no dispute about the facts. That statement was clearly posted in post #66, and it was reposted in post #95 when I tried to identify the context. I even used bold letters in post #95.
A judge should normally not side with anyone other than the law itself, e.g. the right to a fair trial.
The court have different interpretation of “JUSTICE” than most people. It can only provide the type of justice it has the powers to provide, and that may be something completely different from more commonly shared ideas of justice.
People believe that the main purpose of a court is to prosecute and convict criminals (and similar ideas). But that’s not the main function of a court.
In this process who you think will come out winning the SEC or Telexfree?
The bankruptcy process will probably delay other parts of the case. Score to TelexFree’s organizers, but not enough to win the match.
@M_Norway
Ie the SEC wins in the end?
@TTL DF
Yes, that was the meaning. But I probably shouldn’t have compared it to a game.
In strategy, it’s normally better to INITIATE something yourself rather than wait passively for something to happen.
It was probably better to INITIATE a bankruptcy case in Nevada, rather than waiting for Mass-Sec-Div to shut it down locally, or to wait for SEC to shut it down. The idea is to “bring the case to court, but choose the type of court and the type of case yourself”.
That strategy forced the opponents to rush to some counter attacks immediately, prevented them from following their normal strategy. The normal strategy would have been subpoenas and disclosures, followed by a shutdown and appointment of a temporary Receiver.
To quote a post, the best way is to mark the text you want to quote (using the mouse, holding LEFT button down), and then click the (Q). Other methods will also work, but some methods can be “rather troublesome” to edit.
NOTE: Those blockquotes will be quoted with an active link to the post it was quoted from. Most of us prefer to remove that link to avoid moderation queue. I can probably explain how to remove the link in a later comment.
The manual method for putting text into “green boxes” is to use the HTML tags
<blockquote>text in green box</blockquote>.It will look like this:
It seemed to make a huge difference for you? You responded with arguments about “dishonesty” when I identified the context. “How incredibly dishonest of you to change a quote to suit your purpose”.
I have looked at 3 other people as potential main organizers. They’re part of the same team, running several businesses together or related to each other’s businesses. They cover accounting, assets protection, business registrations and similar areas.
Those 3 people are:
* Paul T. Adams Jr. (P. Thomas Adams Jr., Paul T. Adams)
* Joseph H. Craft (Joe Craft, Joe H. Craft)
* John Ewing (John D. Ewing)
They’re the 3 partners in BWFC Processing Center LLC, the agent that registered TelexFree LLC in Nevada in 2012. It’s a CRA agent = a Corporate Registered Agent, offering the service for profit. BWCF isn’t registered as a company itself, it’s registered as an agent name for Adams, Craft & Ewing LLLP.
“BWFC” is probably an abbreviation for BridgeWay Financial Corporation, a company offering assets protection strategies, plus an income opportunity selling those strategies (recruiting, etc.). Assets protection is generally about protection against authorities, and protection against lawsuits.
I will not be able to analyse this completely, e.g. there’s a huge list of 1,276 company names in Nevada registered through BWFC (link in post #66).
I found some videos from Bridgeway Financial Corporation on Youtube, but they’re mostly marketing videos with very little content.
youtube.com/user/BridgewayFinanc/videos
It might be worth looking at 1 or 2 of them to get the idea. Looking at all 12 of them was a waste of time. Here’s a list of the videos there:
That’s why it didn’t make much sense to me having a discussion about “Sann Rodrigues’ experience”. I simply didn’t focus on that part.
M_Norway and littleroundman! Samurai bloggers:))) Peace! (Unless someone is practicing a Carlos Castaneda self importance stalking technique 😉
This virus of a company, certenaly is stirring up alot of heated debate!
“The wolf of Telexfree” New movie with Sann Rodriguez! Playing himself!
If those people claims are to be believed, TF must have entered the island in late 2012 or the beginning of 2013, since a few months later they were already parading cruises to Corsica, vacations to exotic places, and claiming they were finally relieved from the current crisis.
At that time it was pretty obvious it was a scam, we went to Telexfree website and it was ALL about the Ponzi Ad system, with a mere subpage with about 5 lines saying something like “Uhh, right, and we also have this great phone application. More info about it later…”.
I presume this must have been the Portuguese version of the site, since archive.org shows a much more complete version at that date than what we have seen back then.
In any case, it was pretty obvious they were not selling the product neither in Brazil nor in Portugal, due to the complete lack of information in Portuguese about what it was.
I recall having some difficulty to find out something as basic as what kind of product they supposedly sold back then. This seems to have changed meanwhile, since when I recently checked their webpage they had all that information, plus the application with the 1 hour free promo.
Anyway, I doubt the product is known in Portugal outside of Telexfree circles, even today. Market penetration has been zero.
This pretty much shows the disingenuous nature of those who first joined the scheme here, they knew perfectly well what they were doing. By early 2013 a bunch of idiots was already following them, blinded by a mix of ignorance and greed, but too basic to actually sell it, so all promotion was generally done by the “leaders”. This changed over the time, of course, in the last months everyone was jumping into it, not only fools and crooks.
I suppose the elitist nature of many of the first promoters has to do with the increasing impoverishment of our middle and upper middle classes due to the austerity Portugal presently endures. And in an island where everything is about appearances, there must have been a strong appeal for otherwise honest and considerate people engage in such activities. Then it spread like the Plague.
Last February it hit the Channel Islands, where a lot of Maderians work and live, but were promptly blocked by the local police which issued a fraud warning. By last March it was already hitting full force Portuguese mainland and our emigrant community in South Africa.
I wonder if we will ever know who was our Patient Zero.
From “Equipa Sorrisos” (Portuguese TF team) promotion material:
Map of March Telexfree roadshows in Portuguese mainland – https://scontent-b-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/970036_749995821687709_1882485395_n.jpg
Schedule for March South Africa roadshows – https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/t1.0-9/1972503_1448136712088411_1778136101_n.jpg
I’ve actually found Telexfree “Patient Zero” for Madeira Island (and Portugal). It was Graça Luísa herself.
She established contact with the Telexfree gang between July and August 2012, given that by July 2012 she was still pimping her previous pyramid scheme, Hyper&Level. She registered with Telexfree at 24 August 2012, and by 15 September 2012 she had already formed the first TF team operating in Europe, “Equipa Sorrisos” (Smiling Team) based on her previous Hyper&Level team.
Initially they seem to have been secretive about what they were doing, not even revealing the name of the company. All activity was promoting something were you gained a fix monthly rent of 400$ by posting ads (after paying an undisclosed initial fee, not mentioned in the promotion). By 4 Oct they started referring to it as Telexfree.
All initial promotion was about the advertisement program, first reference to the 99Telexfree VOIP is in 25 Dec 2012, as some big news for 2013. What they claim in the promos is very similar to the other Ponzi pimps now under TRO, basically win lots of money without selling anything, just posting ads. She posted preposterous ads claiming that by every payment of $400, Telexfree was making $1396 to themselves, based on math errors not expected even in a 3th grader. She even posted a diagram with a pyramid of people to explain how it worked.
Apparently we are with Telexfree almost since they began activity, at least since August 2012, and it was indeed introduced here by a Ponzi pimp.
It seems to have been well planned locally, but the changes in the compensation plan in March must have made it much more difficult to sell? The first changes came right in the middle of the campaign in South Africa, before they had the time to enter the mainland in Portugal.
The question was rhetorical, I don’t expect it to be answered.
Roadshows and “Hallelujah meetings” are typical methods for experienced pyramid scheme promoters. People are more willing to join something when they act as part of a group rather than as individuals.
She didn’t become visible on the internet before 6-8 months ago, in second half of 2013?
youtube.com/user/EquipaSorrisos/videos?flow=grid&view=0&sort=da
I have only done a quick search, and looked at “Graça Luísa”, “Graça Luísa Andrade”, “Equipa Sorrisos”. I looked briefly at blogs, youtube channels, Facebook. But I focused on dates rather than on content.
Both “Graça Luísa” and “Graça Luísa Andrade” are promoters, but they’re not “well organized”. At least I didn’t find the type of organization I was looking for. But I clearly found a pyramid scheme pimp.
But who are the “social elite” she recruited? Who recruited THEM? Are those people with some reputation that are mostly inherited rather than accomplished? That sort of people may be more gullible to such Ponzi pitches.
Somehow they were being successful selling that crap, I’ve seen several people from Portugal mainland who entered after the new plan. Some even joined as late as 14 April.
They were trying to enter Portugal’s mainland already since 2012 (Lisbon & Porto). However, only last January they started hitting it in an organized way, first touring Portugal main cities from 6 to 11 Jan. From 23 Jan to late Feb they toured the entire Algarve and part of Alentejo. By March/April they were hitting full force the whole country.
They seem to have been organized mainly via FB, and it spread by word of mouth rather than by advertising or other kind of promotion.
They have generally kept a secretive atmosphere around “the business”, somewhat like a sect. Many people were ashamed of having joined it and would never confirm they were promoters of Telexfree. In the TV news pieces about Telexfree promoters always appeared with face hidden and voice disguised, with exception of Graça Luísa. Only very few were “100% Telexfree” in public.
Graça Luísa Andrade is her full name.
I’ve actually found how Telexfree contacted her. Her first contact was with Lelio Farias, who since early 2012 was advertising Telexfree in websites and his FB page (not named, only referred to as an “American company”). Both Lelio Farias and Graça Luísa only disclosed the name of the business – Telexfree – in Sep/Oct 2012.
Lelio Farias is a former MML promoter of Disk-a-Vontade, by Jan 2009 he was giving MML training for that company. He probably is with Telexfree since its inception. He’s also from Espírito Santo, like Carlos Costa, Wanzeler and a lot of others from TF gang.
Lelio Farias is Graça Luísa upline, and consequently upline of most European members, as well as emigrant communities abroad.
Lelio Farias Disk-A-Vontade MML training Powerpoint – http://pt.scribd.com/doc/9787962/Treinamento-Disk-O-Sistema
Example of early Telexfree announcement (posted by Lelio Farias):
http://classificados.esquillo.com/detail.php?siteid=175308
Reads:
Dated 28 March 2012 (less than 2 months after Telexfree registration in the US).
We have been constantly amazed about the people that have been spreading the scam, many of them we would never imagine doing that. I can give you an example, since she went public with it in Graça Luísa FB: Cristina Manuela Barbeito, wife of the local president of Caritas Diocesana (see wikipedia entry on Caritas (charity)) – and she also works in the charity.
The fact was that it spread by word of mouth, in a secretive ambiance, and very few people went public with it. The proposals were made in private conversations, following the usual remarks about the current financial crisis the country endures. All Telexfree promoters who were interviewed by TV had their faces and voice disguised, with the single exception of Graça Luísa.
Since they generally didn’t went public about their Telexfree activities, the social backslash was/is limited. Only people with personal, direct knowledge know about them.
There you see the value of having local knowledge / understanding the language. I was only able to find very limited information. I wouldn’t have been able to recognize it either if I had found the right type of information.
This may be of interest. Lelio Farias and his downline Graça Luísa are now both pimping out a “new plan” based on GDI domains.
GDI is old news, they are around for about 14 or 15 years and have a real product which while not being exactly expensive, it’s difficult to sell, so it’s not such a great MML opportunity. However, this new plan requires promoters to send a 50$ monthly fee, in return of about 20,000$ monthly as their downlines grow.
It is being explained using this calculator – website.ws/kvmlm2/st_calculator.dhtml with the values 1-5-1-5 in the fields. I wonder how this will play out, and what kind of connection they have with GDI. They are now passing all their downlines into this new plan.
Some research I’ve done (info in Portuguese was translated):
website.informer.com/Lelio++Farias+GDI.html :
telexfree.us redirects to telexmax.com/admin/create.php?user=leliofarias#
There you can see:
TelexMax seems to be indeed a Frankenstein built from part Telexfree and part GDI. From this website, pedroalive.com/telexfree-o-que-e-e-para-que-serve-telexmax/ (Posted January 30 by Pedro Gomes (Equipa Sorrisos)) it uses domains to promote Telexfree, with capture sites, team blogs and so on.
Leo Farias traveled last 1 Dec. to the United States, where he spent the entire month touring CA and FL promoting TelexMax. He has spent several days in Sarasota, FL. He has been promoting TelexMax since then, describing it as platform to maximize Telexfree gains.
855 Mecca Dr Sarasota FL is a condo parcel owned by Lelio and Teresa Farias at least since 2008: sc-pa.com/search/nearby_parcels.asp?propid=2001-07-5028&year=2008
Lelio and Teresa (full names Lelio Celso Ramirez Farias and Teresa Ramirez Farias) seem to be brothers. They used to run Confidence Cleaning, Corp. from that Sarasota address. It was registered in 2003. The corporation is still active, but is run by other people at the same address:
corporationwiki.com/Florida/Sarasota/confidence-cleaning-corp-5410961.aspx
In the same year Lelio registered another company, Flash Investments, Corp. along with José Cunha (formerly from Infforma, Inc., Orlando FL). It is now defunct, and was located at 1574 SE 3rd Ct Deerfield Beach, FL 33441: corporationwiki.com/Florida/Deerfield-Beach/flash-investments-corp-5071541.aspx
TELEXFREEEXTRAVAGANZA.COM (GDI), which given its name was about Telexfree Extravaganzas, the lavish events promoted by Telexfree where a lot of investor money was wasted:
name911.com/whois/TELEXFREEEXTRAVAGANZA.COM
It now redirects to Madeira TV online channel (weird).
TELEXMAXTV.COM (GDI) is also registered by Lelio Farias under that address – name911.com/whois/TELEXMAXTV.COM
it redirects to new.livestream.com/accounts/5971503/events/2821115 (Creative R US).
More domain names registered by Lelio Farias with the same address: DENISERUEN.COM (“O Segredo da Duplicação”), WASNEYCOSTA.COM
leliofariasvip.com/ , registered to the same address AKA topteamgdi.ws/ (see myip.ms/info/whois/64.70.19.38/k/276096403/website/topteamgdi.ws), is the sales pitch of Ashmax. Reads:
topteamgdi.ws/Confirmacao reads:
More info about Ashmax (Oct 2013):
webmarketearning.com/membership-business-model/how-ashmax-works-for-a-marketing-system-proven-tool-to-make-money-online-quickly.html
Sept. 2010 Info:
groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/guslo/Hyip-aivdBA
Conclusions:
*Both Farias and Merrill run or ran cleaning businesses. This might have been the way Farias joined Disk-A-Vontade.
*Farias and Graça Luísa seem to be recycling their Telexfree teams into a version of Ashmax, which is opperated in Brazil by Farias.
*There is a solid connection between GDI and Telexfree, by way of Florida based Telexmax, created and promoted by Farias in late 2013 ostensibly to maximize Telexfree gains.
*TelexMax seems to operate from Farias home in Saratoga, FL.
*The new scam is a Ponzi scheme based on a monthly investment of $50 which with time will became in a monthly gain of about $20000.
*I don’t know what to think about the redirect from TELEXFREEEXTRAVAGANZA.COM to Madeira TV (Meo) online channel. It certainly is very weird.
*Possible connection to Sann Rodrigues, who also lives in Florida?
Any thoughts about this?
Hmong promoters should be prosecuted. They have cheated many poor Hmong people.
Oh dear, I didn’t see that coming…