PatrickPretty.com

Day: March 18, 2014

  • Washington State Rejects TelexFree Bid To Register As Telecommunications Firm

    TelexFreeLLCWashingtontelecommunications

    The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission has rejected a bid by TelexFree LLC to register as a telecommunications company.

    TelexFree LLC is not registered as a corporation in Washington state and therefore is ineligible to be registered as a telecommunications firm in the state, the commission said in a finding dated March 13.

    How the order will affect TelexFree reps in Washington state  was not immediately clear this evening. Also unclear is whether TelexFree LLC will encounter similar problems in other U.S. states. TelexFree LLC  is part of an enterprise that already is offering a VOIP product and says it is expanding into cell phones, apps, credit repair and financial advice.

    “THE COMMISSION REJECTS the application and petition of Telexfree, LLC, in its entirety,” the order reads in part.

    TelexFree LLC’s rejected filing was submitted Feb. 13 by Joseph Isaacs, a “consultant” from Palm Harbor, Fla., according to the state. A “Telexfree LLC Balance Sheet” is listed on the state’s website as part of the submission. The balance-sheet document “properties” lists “JoeCraft” as the author.

    As the PP Blog reported on March 9, the balance sheet claims TelexFree LLC has provided millions of dollars in loans to other TelexFree enterprises.

    One loan, according to the document, was for more than $3.8 million and went to an entity known as Telexfree Financial Inc. Another loan of more than $2.022 million went to an entity known as TelexElectric LLLP.

    In addition, the Washington state document lists a loan of more than $500,000 to an entity known as TelexMobile. Another loan of more than $291,800 went to an entity described as Ympactus. A TelexFree-related entity known as Ympactus Comercial Ltd. is based in Brazil.

    TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is associated with Ympactus. Costa said yesterday that TelexFree had been assessed a tax penalty in Brazil of about $30 million.

    The government of Rwanda has announced that a TelexFree enterprise has been banned in the African nation after a joint probe with Rwanda’s central bank. Rwanda said it was concerned that the enterprise posed a money-laundering risk. TelexFree, which operates in Massachusetts as TelexFree Inc., is under investigation in its home state. Brazilian prosecutors have called TelexFree a pyramid scheme.

    The order in Washington state leaves open the door for TelexFree LLC, which is based in Nevada, to reapply for telecommunications registration if it gets properly registered as a corporation in Washington.

    TelexFree LLC appears to have 14 days from March 14 to challenge the order. March 14 was the date the order was posted on the state’s website.

  • Government Of Rwanda, Citing Pyramid And Money-Laundering Concerns, Bans TelexFree Enterprise After Joint Probe With Nation’s Central Bank

    RwandaTelexFreeThe Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Republic of Rwanda has announced that a TelexFree enterprise has been banned in the country after a joint investigation with the National Bank of Rwanda, the nation’s central bank.

    Central banks control monetary policy in their respective countries. Other examples of central banks include the Bank of Canada, Banco Centro do Brasil and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

    The move by the Rwandan government and the central bank may mark the first public effort to choke off TelexFree.

    Whether TelexFree headquarters in the United States had direct/indirect or no control over the operation in Rwanda was not immediately clear. Nor was it clear whether any help from TelexFree’s U.S. or Brazilian operations would be forthcoming.

    Kanimba Francois, Rwanda’s Trade and Industry Minister, signed the order, specifically naming an entity known as P.L.I Telexfree Rwanda Ltd.

    How many other TelexFree-related enterprises may be operating in Rwanda wasn’t immediately clear. In theory, a single distributor could recruit tens, hundreds or even thousands of affiliates, with those affiliates creating even more.

    TelexFree has thrived, based on assertions that sums sent to the firm triple or quadruple in a year.

    Separately, Uganda is signaling that it may follow Rwanda’s lead. The Twitter site of Richard Kabonero, Uganda’s ambassador to Rwanda, has published the Rwanda ban signed by Francois.

    A Tweet attributed to Kabonero read, “like [all] good ponzi schemes the people who get in first make the money but eventually they fold.”

    Following a common theme when a government moves against an MLM “program,” a fellow Tweeter asserted that Kabonero was jealous because he wasn’t earning money in TelexFree.

    RwandaEye, an online financial publication, is reporting that TelexFree operated from the second floor of a supermarket in Remera.

    TelexFree is under investigation in Brazil, amid pyramid allegations. The “program” also is under investigation in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

    News of the Rwanda ban after the joint probe with the central bank came while some TelexFree affiliates were complaining about not getting paid and poor response to customer-service issues.

    On March 14, this message appeared on a Facebook site dubbed “TelexFreeInUSA” (italics added/quoted section verbatim except as noted):

    Hello, i opened an account the 27/2/20014 and i payed invoice for a family pack (amount 1425$) the 10/03/2014. In ewallet i recived this message from TelexFree near my payed invoice: “Invoice Number [deleted by PP Blog] Voided as per management request. Package is no longer available”.

    !!! AT THIS MOMENT MY ACCOUNT IS NOT ACTIVATED, I HAVE NOT RECIVED A REFUND FROM TELEXFREE, ANYONE ANSWER TO MY EMAILS AND MY SUPPORT REQUESTS !!!

    Efforts to get a refund have failed so far, the poster claimed. Many TelexFree affiliates have claimed that purchases of “family packs” generate guaranteed income. Sales of “packs” are typical of HYIP Ponzi schemes.