A (MLM) Skeptic: Money laundering

Showing posts with label Money laundering. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Scam Absurdities: Birds of a Feather Flock Together, or the Rodrigues and Filho financial links

There was an old saying: Birds of a Feather, Flock Together

Basically means: like attracts like.

So how does this apply to Ponzi schemes? One needs to look no further than Sanderlay Rodrigues De Vasconcelos aka "Sann Rodrigues", and his ties to Daniel Rojo Filho.

For those of you who don't know "Sann" Rodrigues... he used to go by the title "First Millionaire TelexFree US". That's right... he's a "net winner" in the TelexFree scam in both Brazil and the US. Previously he operated a Ponzi scheme called FoneClub that was shut down by the SEC around 2006. Oh, gee, now here he is again, a top leader in ANOTHER Ponzi scheme, TelexFree, shut down by the the SEC! But it gets better. At the time Sann was in Brazil, and he simply came up with a new scheme... called iFreeX. And within a few months Massachussetts called it suspect Ponzi, which apparently prompted Brazilian authorities to raid his recruiting seminar and invited him downtown for a long chat. He was released but apparently under travel restrictions, roughly March 2015 or so.

MLMSkeptic was immediately reminded of the circumstances how half of the TelexFree US, Carlos Wanzeler, escaped the country... by driving into Canada ahead of the authorities with his daughter, leaving his wife behind, and from there they flew to Brazil, where they cannot be extradited against their will (as per Brazilian constitution. Wanzeler still holds Brazilian citizenship). When his wife Katia Wanzeler tried to join them she was arrested at the airport by Federal agents, minutes before she got on the plane. She had previous told Federal agents serving a search warrant on the Wanzeler house that Carlos is staying at a hotel when it was later discovered that when she told the Federal agents Carlos and daughter was in fact heading toward the Canadian border in a car registered to her company.

But we're here to talk about Sann Rodrigues... Any way... Apparently Sann Rodrigues managed to get himself out of Brazil despite Brazilians told him to not go anywhere. So when he disappeared, Brazilian authorities put out a Interpol Red WANTED notice:

Interpol Wanted Notice for Sann Rodrigues

So when he showed up in Newark, New Jersey (yes, in the US) getting back into the US... He was promptly arrested for VISA fraud. He had apparently neglected to mention that he was arrested for Ponzi scheme back in 2008 or so... among other problems. He posted bail, had his passport (and those of his family) confiscated, only to be arrested AGAIN for the Interpol warrant. He spent another weekend in jail until Brazilians eventually responded "you can keep him for now".

Okay, so what does this have to do with Daniel Rojo Filho? And who is Daniel Rojo Filho? Pretty complex guy... and "ambassador of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel", according to a Mexican article.

Continued... »

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Do You Know Where Your Money Went If You Invested in a Suspect Scheme?

According to court documents made public recently, ZeekRewards ponzi scheme victims may have a longer wait if any money can be recovered, for millions of their money held by payment processor for Zeek being a high risk client, may have been in several Eastern European Banks that have been shut down for fraud, and chances for recovery is remote.

Zeek Rewards was a Ponzi scheme in North Carolina that ensnared MILLIONS of victims in the US and beyond by promising massive profit sharing from the alleged penny auction business if they "purchase" bids to be given away as promotional items and in return gets a profit share based on amount of bids purchased for the next 90 days at daily rate of up to 1.8%. The scheme collapsed in 2012 when facilities was raided by SEC and Secret Service agents and entire operation closed down. Since that time, a receiver has attempted to recover tens of millions of dollars held by third-parties, who were supposed to obey court orders not to move the money, and to be eventually returned. Yet it is clear now this order was not obeyed on many occasions, and tens of millions have gone missing.

Before the collapse of Zeek in 2012 Zeek consultant "Keith Laggos", MLM Expert, boasted that he helped Zeek management to move payment operations abroad. People then didn't ask why. The reason can only be that US financial institutions no longer want to touch Zeek. Now, millions of dollars are out of the US, and potentially out of the reach of the victims, all thanks to efforts of Zeek to continue operating its criminal enterprise by moving money overseas. If this all sounds confusing as heck, let's start from the beginning.

Continued... »

Thursday, April 24, 2014

TelexFree News Update, April 24, 2014: Claim process starts (DO NOT FILE YET!), more investigation in Dominican Republic, and more legal motions

A flurry of news for past 24 hours, but all of them small. Here's the summary:

TelexFree Bankruptcy will Continue in Nevada for Now, Claim Deadline Set

Bankruptcy judge in Nevada has allowed the bankruptcy proceedings to continue for now (on an interim basis), with another court date for May 2nd among the parties such as TelexFree, SEC, and US Trustees. KCC has been appointed interim claims and noticing agent to handle paperwork.

As a result of this appointment, court also has set tentative dates, including a "341 Meeting" (named for the bankruptcy law section) for May 22nd, and claim deadline of August 20. The debtors will be present and if you are a creditor, there may be an opportunity to question the principles of TelexFree.

The "341 Meeting" will take place May 22, 2014 at 3:00 P.M. in the Jury Assembly Room of the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada

Any and all claims *must* be filed with the claim agent. Absolutely DO NOT file the claim with the court itself. Jordan "Ponzitracker" Maglich will have a guide on how to fill out the claim and where to send it and it will be linked from here when it is published. You can wait a few days!

See http://www.ponzitracker.com/main/2014/4/24/claim-deadline-set-for-victims-in-telexfree-bankruptcy.html

ANALYSIS: Do not file any claims yet. Wait until after May 2nd at least. You don't even know if the claims will be staying in Nevada just yet. By then a guide to fill out the claim will be published.

TelexFree and SEC file a flurry of motions and briefs

TelexFree is arguing that bankruptcy would trump some parts of the TRO. This will be decided in Nevada court on May 2nd. (SEC asked for April 30th, but judge took TelexFree's side and gave both May 2nd).

SEC's arguing that the case belongs in Massachussetts, where the creditors and the principal all reside. This will be heard on May 2nd.

The individual defenders, such as Labriola, Crosby, and so on have entered their own motions to fight the TRO. On Friday, April 25th, court in Massachussetts will decide whether the TRO will be made permanent.

You can read a full list of motions and order on BehindMLM.com

See: http://behindmlm.com/companies/telexfree/telexfree-court-status-24th-april-2014

ANALYSIS: May 2nd seem to be the big day. Wait until then.

Dominican Republic Authorities Expand TelexFree investigation

Dominican authorities, including anti-money laundering unit, National Prosecutor, and Superintendency of Securities, will coordinate efforts to trace the money of victims in Dominican Republic, which is believed to be tens of millions of pesos. They promised to track down the top promoters and find out where the money went, and if it did indeed left the country, will seek US help to retrieve the money.

See http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2014/4/22/51221/Dominican-agencies-probe-TelexFree-ponzi-scheme

Monday, March 31, 2014

Bad Propaganda: How TelexFree just made a liar out of itself... and all if its affiliates

Around March 18, 2014, Rwanda declared TelexFree to be a money laundering fraud cartel.

TelexFree's response: "That's not me!" Quoting from their own press release:

TelexFREE says, "As far as we can tell, this has nothing to do with us other than the fact that somebody is making illegal use of our name. We have in the neighborhood of half a million customers worldwide, and 121 of them are in Rwanda. But we have no connection with P.L.I. Telexfree Rwanda Ltd., the company shutdown in Rwanda. That company allegedly has been in business for 14 years, whereas we just celebrated our second year in business. We've checked our records and find no evidence of the names of the persons associated with that company registered as either our customers or agents. Rwanda wasn't on our radar until this report hit the Internet."

Well, what does Google say? If you search for "telexfree 14 year", you'll get... 444000 results. Some are just news, let's filter those out. What you are left with... Are the people selling TelexFree... and they ALL say "TelexFree company is a 14 year old American company"... with a few variations, but same thing.

If TelexFree promoters around the world... say TelexFree is 14 year old, and the company itself says it's only 2-year old...

Clearly one side must be wrong. Given that TelexFree's locations are lies, and they are already delcared illegal in Brazil and under investigation elsewhere, clearly the press release is a total fabrication.

And the willingness of TelexFree to roll all of their affiliates under the bus (you are all liars!) is rather... appalling, even to a bystander.

And that's why you should NEVER believe anything published through PRNewswire.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

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.

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