Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, better known as the TelexFree mattress money mule, was arrested by authorities in early January.

On January 23rd Rocha was ordered to remain under detention pending trial.

On March 7th, Rocha and Leonardo Casula Francisco were both indicted by a grand jury.

Leonardo Casula Francisco wasn’t a name I was familiar with. A reader later pointed out however that it’s none other than Carlos Wanzeler’s nephew.

Bearing in mind the original plan for Wanzeler to launder stolen TelexFree Funds out of the US and into Brazil via Hong Kong, the indictment places Casula as coordinator of the plan.

Based in Brazil, Casula sought the assistance of Person A to transfer the proceeds of a wire fraud scheme from the United States to Brazil while concealing or disguising the true nature, source,ownership and control of those proceeds.

b. CASULA negotiated with Person A to take physical possession of a portion of the funds in the United States and transfer them, in increments, to Hong Kong and then to Brazil.

c. CASULA directed another person, ROCHA, to travel to Massachusetts from Brazil to transfer the funds to the possession of Person A for transfer to Hong Kong and Brazil.

Person A is an unidentified individual who has been cooperating with US authorities since October, 2015.

As per the indictment, Rocha and Casula have been indicted by a grand jury on two counts of money laundering.

If convicted, a forfeiture allegation will see $19.4 million dollars seized by the US regulators satisfy a forfeiture money judgement.

Whereas Rocha has been apprehended, Casula is now a fugitive on the run from US authorities. Like uncle, like nephew hey.

At the time of publication a trial date has yet to be scheduled. Stay tuned…

 

Update 5th April 2017 – Rocha’s arraignment was held on March 27th and he entered a not guilty plea.

First Status Conference is scheduled for 8th of May.

 

Update 9th May 2017 – The Status Conference has been rescheduled for May 15th.

 

Update May 16th 2017 – The Status Conference took place and as per an accompanying Status Report, discovery is still ongoing.

A Final Status Conference has been scheduled for June 16th, by which time it is expected discovery will have concluded.

 

Update 18th June 2017 – The Final Status Conference was cancelled on June 15th. It has been replaced with an Initial Pretrial Conference to be held on June 26th.