Daniel Filho’s long-running criminal case saga has come to end, following the dismissal of his indictment.

DFRF Enterprises launched in mid 2014 and was primarily pitched to TelexFree Ponzi victims.

The SEC shut DFRF Enterprises down in July 2015. The DOJ were pursuing a criminal case in tandem, which led to the arrest of owner Daniel Filho later that month.

BehindMLM has extensively covered Filho’s civil and criminal proceedings.

To summarize;

  1. the SEC’s civil case was stayed pending conclusion of criminal proceedings; and
  2. the DOJ’s criminal case has been in limbo for years pending resolution of Filho’s mental health status.

A conclusion to the DOJ’s criminal case against Filho was reached on November 7th, following a filing to dismiss his indictment.

As per the DOJ’s one-page filing;

In support of this dismissal, the government states that the defendant has been deemed incompetent to stand trial and not medically restorable within the foreseeable future, and thus a dismissal, without prejudice, is in the interests of justice.

Filho was declared mentally incompetent back in July, so we knew this was coming as some point.

Two days after the DOJ’s dismissal filing, Filho’s attorney filed a motion demanding his immediate release;

Comes now the defendant, Daniel Fernandes Rojo Filho, and moves the Court to enter an Order that he be released immediately from the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.

The government has moved to dismiss the indictment, and there is no basis for holding the defendant any further.

On November 13th Judge Gorton allowed both motions.

Personally I’ve never bought Daniel Filho’s mental health status. He was competent enough to run a Ponzi scheme and bilk investors out of millions.

Then the FBI arrested him and suddenly Filho was a mental basket-case, unable to process the charges against him or stand trial.

It’s just too convenient.

Still, this is what happened and Filho’s victims and the DOJ seem powerless to do anything Filho’s final swindle.

It would have sat a lot better with me if Filho was remanded into permanent custody until such a time as he was deemed competent, but from the sounds of it he’s being released and getting off scot-free.

Not to take anything away from mental health issues but that’s a pretty disappointing outcome.

On the flip side, on November 14th the SEC filed a motion requesting their civil DFRF Enterprises case stay be lifted. A decision on the motion is pending.

 

Update 22nd November 2018 – The SEC’s DFRF Enterprises case has been reopened as per a November 19th order.