(UPDATED 9:33 A.M. EDT, APRIL 27 U.S.A.) T. LeMont Silver, a pitchman for the $850 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and the OneX pyramid scheme, is now a spokesman for the “Florida Expat” lifestyle in the Dominican Republic, which recently has been rocked by what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission describes as the collapse of the TelexFree pyramid scheme.
The Massachusetts Securities Division has described TelexFree as a “financial pariah” that gathered more than $1.2 billion.
Whether Silver ever had a position in TelexFree is unclear, and he is not referenced in any TelexFree-related court files. What is clear is that the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case sued Silver in March 2014, alleging that Silver was a Zeek “net winner” of more than $1.71 million.
Karen Silver, Silver’s wife, also is an alleged Zeek winner. In her case, the receiver says she received “more than $600,000.”
Kenneth D. Bell, the Zeek receiver, wants the money returned, saying it came from Zeek victims.
Like her husband, Karen Silver has emerged as a fan of the “Florida Expat” lifestyle in the Dominican Republic.
A video dated Jan. 16, 2014, and posted on YouTube features the Silvers being interviewed on the subject of their decision to move to the Dominican Republic. The logo of an enterprise known as DRESCAPES rolls on the screen.
The website of DRESCAPES says its clients will “Survive the Collapse of Fiat Currencies, Including the Dollar & Euro.”
“In our opinion, it’s time to take proactive steps to protect your assets and provide a safe fallback position for your family,” the site ventures.
Prior to relocating to the Dominican Republic, Silver told his downline in a failed MLM “program” known as GoFunPlaces to take advantage of “low-hanging fruit” (other disaffected GoFunPlaces members) and become recruiters for a “program” known as Jubimax. The “programs” ultimately accused each other of fraud.
In the “Expat” video, Silver says he pays his housekeeper in the Dominican Republic $175 a month and that she does an “excellent” job. How many hours she worked to earn her wages was unclear.
Many MLM “programs” sell dreams of riches to low-wage workers. Tens of thousands of Dominicans are believed to be members of TelexFree, which filed for bankruptcy in Nevada April 13.
In March, prior to the April bankruptcy filing, a TelexFree pitchman explained at a convention in Boston that he’d recently been a passenger with other TelexFree pitchmen on a “private jet” that had flown from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. The jet purportedly was met at the airport by “the Prime Minister of Haiti’s motorcade,” which triggered “high-fiving.”
“I felt like a rockstar,” the man said.
Disaffected TelexFree members are now “low-hanging fruit” for other MLM “programs.” Many pitches have been targeted at them.
The SEC said last week that TelexFree mainly targeted Dominican and Brazilian immigrants in the United States.