Now, Zeek- And AdSurfDaily-Like Petitions For TelexFree; Bankruptcy Judge Asked To ‘Bail Out’ MLM ‘Program’
From a petition circulating online today.
On Monday, the PP Blog reported that TelexFree — through its bankruptcy filing Sunday in Nevada — was seeking to reject contracts with its promoters. Yesterday, Jordan Maglich of PonziTracker.com published a lengthy article under this headline: “TelexFree Asks Bankruptcy Court To Eliminate Promoter Obligations.”
In between, the Massachusetts Securities Division described TelexFree as a massive Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered more than $1.2 billion. The SEC filed an emergency action against TelexFree and eight of its owners, executives and promoters.
From PonziTracker’s April 18 story (italics added):
. . . a casual read of the Motion makes clear that the company accused by regulators of being an “egregious” pyramid scheme seeks now to use the Bankruptcy Court’s power to eliminate the obligation to pay accrued compensation likely totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to “promoters” – under the theory that elimination of these obligations will allow the company to “ultimately prove successful and profitable.” Ironically, one of the chief concerns cited by TelexFree related to questions “raised as to whether the Original Comp Plan is compliant with law, which jeopardized the Debtors’ business.
On the same day, the PP Blog reported that TelexFree was the top story in Thursday’s infrastructure report by the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, the Blog reported that TelexFree is calling the actions by Massachusetts and the SEC “precipitous and unnecessary.”
The Blog noted that some TelexFree members appear errantly to believe that the company already has been cleared of the Ponzi and pyramid charges. Uplines could be feeding them misinformation. Separately, BehindMLM.com reported that the federal judge in the SEC action has granted a Temporary Restraining Order against TelexFree.
As BehindMLM noted in its coverage, quoting the judge (italics added):
the Commission has shown that
1. It is reasonably likely to establish that TelexFree and the individual defendants James Merrill, Carlos Wanzeler, Steven Labriola, Joseph Craft, Sanderly Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Santiago De La Rosa, Randy Crosby and Faith Sloan have directly or indirectly engaged in the violations alleged in the complaint . . .
At the moment, major civil litigation against TelexFree in the United States is occurring on at least two fronts. The number could rise, given that TelexFree allegedly operated in at least 20 U.S. states. And because the SEC has described a “search warrant” that was executed in Massachusetts, it is almost certain a criminal probe by at least two U.S. agencies is under way.
TelexFree also is under investigation in Brazil.
To hear some TelexFree members tell it, however, none of these things seem to matter or can be regarded as ordinary events.
At least two petition drives in support of TelexFree have started in recent hours. One of them asks a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge to “Bail out Telexfree.” Another appears not to petition a specific judicial officer. Rather, it appears to ask TelexFree members to support the firm’s bankruptcy filing because TelexFree “has meant a real opportunity to bring sustenance to each of our homes.”
Similar petitions popped up after the SEC alleged in 2012 that the Zeek Rewards “program” was a Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered $600 million. Further investigation now puts that number at between $845 and $897 million. In the interim, two Zeek insiders have been charged with federal crimes and the court-appointed receiver in the case is pursuing clawback claims from thousands of alleged Zeek winners.
In the 2008 AdSurfDaily MLM Ponzi-scheme case, petitions to support ASD also popped up. The Ponzi dollar figure in that case mushroomed from $53 million to $119 million over the course of the probe. Like Zeek, the ASD case started as a civil prosecution with a parallel criminal investigation. ASD President Andy Bowdoin has been in prison since mid-2012. He was sentenced to serve 78 months.
The Zeek and ASD proceeds combined total at least $969 million. If the $1.2 billion asserted in the Massachusetts complaint proves accurate, it means that TelexFree not only fetched more than Zeek and ASD combined, but also may end up holding the title of the largest MLM HYIP Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in history.
There is no doubt that Zeek and ASD members helped fuel the TelexFree machine.
Quick note: Received a spam in Portuguese at 1:52 p.m. EDT today. It wasn’t targeted at this thread. Rather, it was targeted at a thread that is a frequent target of a bot.
In any event, here is the Google Translation to English of the spam:
____________________________________________________
Names: Telexfree, Carlos Costa, and his aides are people who have done much for society. Are names that will be much loved and much hated. Soon they are not alone in this battle. This is necessary and further strengthens the company against the perpetrators of the attacks of evil forces. Telexfre – you win the world while the main focus is for the benefit of the subjugated people … God bless ….
_____________________________________________________
My guess is that the bot is targeting TelexFree topics across the web and lifting snippets from stories/comments, etc. All to drive traffic to another “opportunity,” of course.
The same thing happened not all that long ago. It is covered there:
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/11/24/telexfree-affiliate-pitches-appear-to-have-been-scraped-to-drive-traffic-to-purported-gold-and-silver-venture-in-panama-spam-link-leads-to-site-that-showcases-first-zeek-red-carpet-event-and/
Patrick
I’ve been wondering if the scammers believe the bankruptcy filing is a method for the operators to keep their ill gotten gains.
What if the scammers have seen what happened with Zeek and seen how the receiver has been going after the winners. Maybe they think that by going into bankruptcy protection they can “protect” the assets if/when a receiver is appointed. That way they might be thinking they can keep all the money.
That’s the only answer I could come up with from the beginning Tony.
it’s a two-fold reason, IMHO.
1) They really want to void all the previous AdCentral contracts, and force the new comp plan onto everybody.
2) They want to dissipate the assets onto other entities and see how this one works out.
Sann Rodrigues already floated a trial balloon that basically says “blame Nehra, it’s all his fault, I trusted him.” I’m just waiting for all the other people to shove Nehra out onto the incoming SEC train.
Sann Rodrigues already floated a trial balloon that basically says “blame Nehra, it’s all his fault, I trusted him.” I’m just waiting for all the other people to shove Nehra out onto the incoming SEC train.
As usual…..That’s a lot of crap. I have no respect for Nehra and never have but even I’ll defend the fact that “he” stated in one of Telexfree’s extravaganza video’s that Telexfree needed to have a certain amount of customers and I think he said he would like to see them at 20% but he didn’t think at that point they were even there. That was months and months ago….guess they were only able to secured two or three more customers since that video…lol
New Information regarding the license telecommunication in DC.
http://www.wutc.wa.gov/rms2.nsf/frm2005VwDSWeb!OpenForm&vw2005L1DktSh=140457-Documents&NAV999999
TL;DR version (which is Washington state, not Washington DC)
Joe Isaacs claimed he was duped, and filed false info with all the state commissions to get TelexFree its telecom license. He can’t believe someone would lie like that. NEVER seen ANYTHING like that in 20 years! Please disassociate him and his company from the alleged crooks of TelexFree.
This is the letter itself
http://www.wutc.wa.gov/rms2.nsf/177d98baa5918c7388256a550064a61e/2f3f88183a7f84e088257cbe006a1698!OpenDocument
Mr. Isaacs filed information with the Commissions that was provided to him by TelexFREE, Merrill, Wanzeler and Craft. Mr. Merrill signed all of the affidavits and notarized statements saying the statements and information was true and correct. Yes, he was duped along with 100’s of thousands of others.
Carlos, I assume you don’t know mr. issacs history with the fhtm scam.
Thank you, Faraó.
Patrick
Jordan “Ponzitracker” Maglich has an article “What’s Next for TelexFree victims”
http://www.ponzitracker.com/main/2014/4/20/whats-next-for-telexfree-victims.html