BREAKING NEWS: Zeek Receiver sued Kevin Grimes and Howard Kaplan for negligence, wants $100 million EACH for damages

According to documents filed by Zeek Rewards receiver Ken Bell with the court, he intends to file lawsuit against both Kevin Grimes, head of "Grimes and Reese LLC", and Howard Kaplan, renowned tax expert, for legal malpractice in their role to prop up Zeek Rewards, as it is clearly a ponzi scheme. Receiver is seeking over 100 million in damages against each defendant.

According to Zeek receiver Ken Bell, both Grimes and Kaplan should have know that the business model as presented by Zeek cannot possibly to be true based on their own expertise in their own respective areas, yet both allowed their name be used in association with Zeek Rewards and its parent company, Rex Venture Group.

Grimes created a "compliance program" for Zeek affiliates i.e. what can be said and what cannot. One such "certificate of completion" is reproduced below, from court document filed back in 2012 as part of SEC complaint against Zeek.

News Update 17-JUN-2014: TelexFree James Merrill out on bail; TelexFree trustee subpoena everybody for info; TelexFree victims tell their stories to Boston Globe

Hook, Line, Sinker (How I fell for a phishing scam) (Photo credit: ToastyKen)

Remember folks, read trustworthy sources, not random internet blog posts and Facebook messages. I give you the source of my info, so you can see for yourself.


TelexFree co-owner James Merrill let out on bail

According to Boston Globe, TelexFree co-owner James Merrill was allowed out of jail when the judge decided the criteria for his bail is high enough, which includes:

• THREE houses for collateral, including 2 owned by him and one by his sister ($900000 bond)
• Wear a GPS tracker
• Not leave the state
• Give up his passport
• Must stay at home between 8PM and 8AM

Federal judge Tim Hillman ruled that unlike Merrill's partner Carlos Wanzeler, who had previously fled to Brazil (where he's originally from and still have relatives there), Merrill has deep ties to the Massachusetts community and really has nowhere to run outside of the US. 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/06/17/telexfree-owner-james-merrill-set-free-bail/cSMbK8slkVxZNxEISoKdRO/story.html

NOTE: Click through to see actual judge ruling in this bail hearing. 

TelexFree trustee subpoenaed everybody for information

With little to go on how to administer the estate of TelexFree, the new bankruptcy trustee for TelexFree, Stephen Darr went for the fastest way: he subpoenaed all the different firms that advised TelexFree, which includes:

• PriceWaterhouseCoopers (former financial advisors)
• Alvarez and Marshal / William Runge (restructuring advisors)
• Kurtzman Carson Consultants (bankruptcy claims / noticing agent)
• Gordon Silver (TelexFree lawyers in Nevada)
• Greenberg Traurig (TelexFree lawyers in Massachusetts)

The subpoena demands any and all documents, emails, correspondences, phone (cellular or landline) records pertaining to TelexFree, affiliates, or subsidiaries, any and all financial accounts and related documents, any and all disbursement registers for every account, any documents relating to financial information, esp. those involving Global Payroll Gateway, International Payout Systems, Propay, etc. any and all tax documents, state or Federal, any and all internal financial statements, any and all properties and other assets including intellectual properties, any appraisal of such assets, any and all communications and other documents involving TelexFree or affiliates, creditors, and more. 

News Update 30-MAY-2014: Zeek Receiver First Disbursement Few Months; Sann Rodrigues will NOT get award in Brazilian Congress; Trustee order issued by TelexFree judge

For real news regarding scams and schemes affecting you, stay tuned to REAL news, not bogus news spread through your uplines and similar people out to recruit you.


Zeek Receiver Announce First Distribution Coming 30-SEP-2014

On the ZeekRewardsReceivership website, receiver Ken Bell announced that the first interim distribution is tentatively scheduled for 30-SEP-2014. All people who have filed a claim must have accepted the claim by 15-AUG-2014 to be paid by 30-SEP-2014. Also, those outside of the US must sign the OFACS waiver as well. Please see the ZeekRewardsReceivership.com update for yourself, as linked above.

Obviously this will NOT be the only distribution, but rather than make victims wait even longer (Zeek was closed in 2012!)  a distribution will be made now while receiver goes after more net winners.


Sann Rodrigues will NOT receive award in Brazilian Congress

An event arranged by a Sao Paolo business leader Regino Barros to honor Sann Rodrigues, accused pyramid scheme TelexFree co-conspirator, and other people, has been cancelled hours before it was to start, according to iG News in Brazil. Sann Rodrigues was scheduled to receive "multi-level marketer of the year" award, according to program notes for the event, where Regino Barros will name Sann Rodrigues to "Multi-level Marketing Regulatory Agency", which is a private organization, despite the official sounding name and is not a government agency, according to iG. The senator who booked the room in Congress for Barros apparently was surprised at seeing Rodrigues' name on the list of honorees, but replied "we should not crucify before we have all the fact." when questioned by iG about Rodrigues. It is unknown if Rodrigues would have attended personally.

http://economia.ig.com.br/2014-05-29/homenagem-a-lider-da-telexfree-no-senado-e-cancelada.html (in Portuguese)  and thanks to PatrickPretty for the lead

BREAKING NEWS: Where is Katia Wanzeler? Asked Her Lawyers

According to an emergency motion filed merely hours ago (21-MAY-2014) in Boston, lawyers representing Katia Wanzeler (yes, there's more than one)  don't know where their client is.

After Katia Wanzeler was taken off the jetway leading to a flight going to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at JFK airport last week, she had been detained on a material witness warrant by Federal court in Boston, MA issued 14-MAY-2014, and US Magistrate in New York (which is where JFK airport is) has remanded her to US Marshals to be remanded to Massachusetts as of order of 15-MAY-2014.

And her lawyers claimed that she has NOT appeared in front of grand jury yet, as of today, and they want to know why. And they ask the judge to order the US Marshals to expedite and to hurry along so Katia can regain her freedom, as she had not been charged with any crimes (yet)

This is not on any news, as the documents were filed merely hours ago, and spotted by sharp-eyed Don over at ASDUpdates.

Speculations are running wild, that perhaps USDOJ are preparing charges to hold Mrs. Wanzeler, now that her husband had flown the coop.

Scam Psychology: Is Enforcing Positivity Even Legal? (HINT: NO!)

English: Color logo of the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency of the United States federal government. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Previously here on MLM Skeptic the topic of "positivity" had been discussed several times. But a recent ruling by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has great implications: turns out, enforcing "positivity" at work is ILLEGAL and violates Federal labor laws.

A non-Union hospital has a standing policy that prohibits any sort of negative commentary about the hospital or fellow workers, and outright prohibits "negativity or gossip". It even REQUIRES employees to represent the employer in the public in a "positive and professional manner".

The NLRB which interprets Federal Labor Law says this language so so vague and overreaching it is illegal. And it can inhibit the employees to discuss ways to protect their own rights in groups.

The MLM Skeptic points out that this sort of "no negativity" is common practice on many suspicious scheme's public forums. Zeek Rewards forums were famous in 2012 for killing off ANY sort of criticism or any hint of incompetence by the company, so you are reduced to virtually only 3 types of posts: announcements "Official Zeek", cheerleader-type comments "Zeek is great!" , and whiny questions "please help me..."

TelexFree News Update 5/2/2014: New CEO knows nothing, most procedural things done, no big news

May 2nd is the big court date for TelexFree and Jordan "Ponzitracker" Maglich was live-tweeting about the trial, and not too much happened. Before giving you a summary, I would like to make some comments.

1) Nothing Important Happened. Really. 

Any one who tell you otherwise, like "court exonerates TelexFree", are LIARS.

There was ONE document, that says something will be decided today, but today's session will be continued Monday. It has NOT concluded. So any one who was talking about "good news" are LIARS. There are NO SIGNIFICANT NEWS. Today is just some testimony, and decisions on what can be admitted as evidence, and what cannot be.

2) Unauthorized and plagiarized "live tweet" of trial

Any one "live tweeting", unless they are actually IN the courtroom, and they are probably lying, are simply copying Jordan "Ponzitracker" Maglich's coverage (and Oz's authorized copy on BehindMLM).

Here's the original: http://www.ponzitracker.com/main/2014/5/2/live-blogging-the-telexfree-bankruptcy-hearing.html

There are many alleged coverage on Youtube, mostly of stupid, unattributed (and unauthorized) translations and copies of the real thing, and often the information are outright WRONG. Some even claimed that the bankruptcy was already approved (it haven't even started).  THOSE ARE LIARS. THEY POST CRAP LIKE THIS:

Actual fake news found online even before the trial
coverage ended today, 2-MAY-2014

Accept no substitutes. Ponzitracker will be covering the continuation on Monday. If you wish to donate a few dollars to pay for his special lawyers-only subscription ($30 per hour!) to the trial, please do so at his website.

Now, a quick summary of the trial thus far:

Ponzitracker explains What's Next for TelexFree Victims

Jordan Maglich, otherwise known as Ponzitracker (and runs Ponzitracker.com), has an article up titled  "What's Next for TelexFree Victims". 

The important stuff is at the end, and excerpted below:

One step that those affected parties can take today is to begin gathering all evidence of their relationship and investment with TelexFree.  This includes agreements, negotiated checks and credit card statements, and bank statements showing any deposits and/or withdrawals.  This information will be necessary, if not required, in connection with submitting claims to the Bankruptcy Court. 

Regarding claims, each interested party will most likely have the opportunity to submit Proof of Claim Forms to the Bankruptcy Court to properly document their entitlement to any earmarked funds.  Perhaps the most crucial guidance surrounding these claims is that attention must be paid to the deadlines imposed by the Court for submission of Proof of Claim forms and any other documents - untimely or tardy claims fare a much less chance of being approved than a timely claim.  A copy of a blank Proof of Claim Form is embedded below and downloadable here.  While the filing of a Proof of Claim may not be required if the case proceeds as a Chapter 11 proceeding and the particular debt is listed in the correct amount in the schedules filed with the Court, the submission of a Proof of Claim may still be advised.

While you don't need to fill out such a "proof of claim" for at this time (and please do NOT fill one out and send it to the court, it'll just delay the case), it should help you organize your claims when the courts got things sorted out and the reclamation process begins.

BREAKING NEWS: iPayout Cuts off TelexFree eWallet, and TelexFree "office" closed in Dominican Republic

iPayout, upon warning by Massachusetts Attorney General, has apparently pulled the plug on TelexFree's eWallet, despite previously claiming that it had only few months ago checked out TelexFree and sees nothing wrong.

In other news, Dominican Republic is in an uproar when TelexFree's "local office" locked its doors. It is estimated that 150000 people may have joined.

BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree Declares Bankruptcy, then was REJECTED

Bankrupt (Photo credit: LendingMemo)

Yes, you heard right: TelexFree (US) tried to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization.

Then was rejected for filing an incomplete application.

On Sunday, 13-APR-2014, Press Release started appearing all of the US through PRNewsWire, which linked to this document :

http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140413000000000001

Appears to be official, and contains a list of creditors owned money to.

According to some comments, (unverified) the top creditors to the bankrupt TelexFree are Carlos Costa's wife and nephew (1.34 mil and 0.96 mil USD respectively). Carlos Costas is head of TelexFree in Brazil.

Document only lists the top 30 creditors, there are obviously much much more.

Who Really Decides What Is Safe In your Food (and Nutritional Supplements)?

English: Logo of the . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Obvious fact:  nutritional supplements are considered "food" by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Not so obvious fact: what ends up in the nutritional supplements are often UNregulated
by the FDA, because companies can simply declare some ingredient to be "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) based on some internal studies, and include them without telling the FDA.

Some ingredients are submitted to FDA with full studies and gains full FDA approval, but most ingredients are not approved by the FDA, and are merely declared to be GRAS by internal studies. A third way, where the GRAS study was submitted to FDA for approval, are often withdrawn, and the ingredient used any way.

GRAS was meant to be used for common ingredients like vegetable oil, vinegar, and so on. But the law, enjoying its 56th birthday recently, is now an anachronism and a loophole for companies to punch through ingredients without formal review by the FDA.

National Resource Defense Council has published a paper where it tracked 56 companies involved in 250+ chemicals declared as GRAS, as reported by Consumerist. Some of which are... troubling. And you need to be aware if you are drinking or taking any weight-loss or energy formulas.

OLD NEWS? TelexFree was also in Trouble in Colombia and Croatia

Search news archives revealed that Colombia had been investigating TelexFree since late February 2014.

In Bucaramanga, researchers have three ongoing processes. One of them is related to the company Telexfree, presented as a system of marketing and advertising for technology.

The Commissioner of Police, General Rodolfo Palomino, said this is the third alert the authorities launched the community not falling into deception.

Also in February, a newspaper in Croatia revealed that TelexFree had been recruiting in Croatia as well, with secret meetings and last-second cancellations.

"Simple earnings at home", "Fast internet earnings" and other enticing ads flooded the small advertising newspapers lately, offering the possibility of great additional income with a few hours of clicking the mouse at home. 
really sounds tempting, and certainly among the most publicized earnings over TelexFree - let's call it so - system, which has launched a company registered in Brazil and, according to the people who promote it, spread it around the world. 

So if you ask where your money is coming from if you are earning in TelexFree... the answer is... everywhere except your country... just as your money went to someone else, probably NOT in your country.

Related articles

• BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda called TelexFree "money laundering cartel"
• TelexFree Under Investigation In USA
• Scam Absurdities: What Sann Rodrigues of TelexFree do NOT want you to know about his past
• More Bizarre TelexFree Affiliates In Brazil: TelexFree Ice Cream

UPDATED BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda called TelexFree "money laundering cartel"

Rwandan officials blocked $6 million Rwandan francs from moving out of country by TelexFree, a Rwandan investigator told Rwandan Eye News.

Ministry of Trade and Industry representative indicated that the company [TelexFree] has been laundering money, evading taxes and exploiting Rwandans to the benefit of its foreign owners. MTI had formally banned the company from operating recently.

UPDATE: New figure puts the figure at 7 BILLION Rwandan francs, equivalent to 11.3 million USD, transferred out of Rwanda to Germany and the US.

Article also stated that Tanzania already banned TelexFree.

Related articles

• BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree under investigation in Africa
• BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree cancels recruitment seminar on Jersey
• WTF is TelexFree trying to do in Brazil?
• Scam Absurdities: What Sann Rodrigues of TelexFree do NOT want you to know about his past

BREAKING NEWS: Rwanda banned TelexFree, Uganda may be next

Uganda's ambassador to Rwanda just tweeted Rwanda's official ruling on TelexFree: it's BANNED! And he's asking Uganda to ban this quickly too!

Thanks to BehindMLM for the lead. 

Oh, and here's the official signed order, thanks to PatrickPretty.com for the link and photo.

BREAKING NEWS: Italy fined Vemma, Organo Gold, and Asea 500K Euros for pyramid scheme and false claims

Flag of Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Italy's Financial Regulators (Guardia di Finanze) Special Market Protection Unit, Anti-Trust Group, just issued fines to Vemma Italy (100K Euro fine), Asea Italy (150K Euro fine), and Organo Gold Europe (250K Euro fine) for "unfair business practices" (i.e. pyramid sales) of pushing illegal MLM beverage business.

Asea and Organo Gold got extra fines because they also made unsubstantiated health claims. Asea apparently claimed their product strengthens the immune system, promote healing process, and reduce harmful effects of free radicals. Organo Gold apparently claimed that their ganoderma mushroom made it effective in prophylaxis of nerve diseases, vascular diseases, and cancer, without side effects.

http://www.helpconsumatori.it/acquisti/vendite-piramidali-antitrust-decide-multe-per-500-mila-euro/79331

Related articles

• Bad Propaganda: Perpetuating Myths and Misunderstandings to Deflect Criticism
• Evil MLM: Spend Your Own Time on MLM, not your "day job" Time!
• Alarms Raised at Colleges Over Pyramid Allegations of MLM Vemma
• Just what *are* Your odds in Vemma? Is there an "insider's club" in Vemma?

BREAKING NEWS: Herbalife confirmed it is under investigation by FTC

In a webcast, Herbalife confirmed that it is indeed under investigation by FTC.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/federal-probe-is-latest-twist-in-herbalife-saga-2014-03-12

BREAKING NEWS: Quebec, Canada, and Alaska, US, issues alert regarding WCM777 and related entities

State of Alaska, United States of America, issued an investor fraud alert regarding WCM777 (later renamed Kingdom777, later renamed Global Unity)

http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/pub/PR-14-004-Investor-Fraud-Alert.pdf

This was quickly followed by Quebec Canada

http://www.lautorite.qc.ca/en/press-releases-2014-corpo.html_2014_alert-wcm777.html

If you are involved in WCM777, having put money into it, or know of someone who did, you may want to contact the authorities, esp. if you are in these areas.  Even if you are not, these are just some of the dozen jurisdictions that have issued investor alerts or outright cease and desist orders against WCM777. Chances you are in one of the other areas. Even if you are not, your money is in danger and you should contact your local authorities ASAP.

You can see all related articles regarding WCM777 via the tag below.

BREAKING NEWS: ZeekRewards receiver filed civil suit against "insiders" and net winners

According to PatrickPretty.com, Zeek Rewards receiver Ken Bell has filed lawsuit against the "net winners" of Zeek Rewards, alleging that they had long conspired to defraud others. This includes all of the major players in Zeek Rewards, including Paul "The Singing Magician" Burks, Dawn "HippieDiva" Wright-Olivares, Alex "I married Dawn" deBrantes, Dan "CIO? Me?" Olivares, and Darryle "Who? Me?" Douglas, as well as the estate of the late Roger Anthony Plyler.

This is a separate lawsuit from the charges filed by the SEC, and it is unknown if other agencies will bring criminal charges against the heads of the largest Ponzi scheme (in number of victims) in US History.

http://patrickpretty.com/2014/03/03/urgent-bulletin-moving-zeek-receiver-sues-alleged-insiders-winners-emails-skype-chats-helped-expose-fraud-weve-already-attracted-a-great-many-big-fishes-wright-olivares-exci/

More details on BehindMLM

http://behindmlm.com/companies/zeek-rewards/clawbacks-filed-against-zeek-insiders-winners

BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree cancels recruitment seminar on Jersey

According to Detective-Sargeant Andrew Smith of Police of Jersey, when TelexFree reps learned that the local police is already aware of them, a recruitment seminar scheduled was abruptly cancelled, as reported by Globo:

"When they learned that we knew, they canceled the meeting," says Andrew Smith, Detective Sergeant of Police of Jersey, the iG . "We know that this is a fraud, a scam."
According to Smith, representatives of Telexfree from abroad were expected for the event. The police declined to disclose the names, and denied that they were Carlos Costa, Carlos Wanzeler, James Merrill and Steve Labriola, business leaders who participated in a company cruise in Brazil in December 2013.

BREAKING NEWS: FTC responds to Senator Markey's Letter... with nothing

FTC just made public their response to Senator Markey's letter regarding Herbalife and its investigation.

They took 3 pages to get to the point, which can be roughly summarized as

"We're looking into it, and we can't answer your questions without giving ourselves away. Stay tuned."

Here's Kevin "The MLM Attorney" Thompson of Thompson-Burton discussing the response.

http://thompsonburton.com/mlmattorney/2014/03/01/ftc-responds-to-senator-markeys-letter/

BREAKING NEWS: TelexFree Fraud Warning in Europe

TelexFree, a suspect Ponzi in Brazil, has apparently trying to make inroads in other parts of the world, which resulted in a warning from at least two European police units, specifically, from Jersey and Guernsey. 

For those who's not familiar with geography, Jersey is a part of "channel islands" between Great Britain and France. Guernsey is another such island. Jersey is nominally its own nation, though a British Crown Dependency, and its law enforcement is basically British.  It has a heavy Madeiran population (Wikipedia states 14% of the population are of Portuguese descent).

Madeira is another island off coast of Europe, specifically Portugal, and thus speaks Portuguese, same as Brazil.

The warning reads:

The States of Jersey Police have been made aware of a potential fraud which is targeting Jersey’s Madeiran community.
Guernsey Police have issued a similar appeal.
The scheme is under a company name of TELEXFREE and would require initial investments with the promise of big returns.
The scheme originated from Brazil and is currently being investigated by the Brazilian authorities as it is believed to be fraudulent.
Jersey Police know that islanders have been approached to “invest” in the scheme, but as yet have not had any contact from victims of the scam.
If anyone in Jersey has invested money into a TELEXFREE scheme they should contact the Joint Financial Crimes Unit on Tel: 01534 612250 (during office hours) or Police headquarters on 01534 612612 (at other times).

It is only a matter of time before the police units in other European countries issue their own official warnings.

(Thanks for BehindMLM for the initial report)