BULLETIN: Stephen B. Darr Appointed TelexFree Trustee
Stephen B. Darr, senior managing director of Mesirow Financial Consulting LLC of Boston, has been appointed trustee in the TelexFree bankruptcy case.
The appointment was made by William K. Harrington, the United States’ Trustee, based on the order of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Melvin S. Hoffman. The office of the U.S. Trustee is the bankruptcy watchdog arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.
News of Darr’s appointment first was Tweeted by Timothy J. Durken, an attorney writing about the TelexFree case.
#TelexFree – Stephen Darr of Mesirow Appointed Chapter 11 Trustee in #Bankruptcy Cases http://t.co/1TmhpmsG7e
— Timothy J. Durken (@TDurken) June 5, 2014
Here is a link to a Darr bio brief.
Here is a link to a website of Cornell University Law School that includes information on the duties of trustees.
Link to appointment documentation as published by Timothy Durken:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/228343084/TelexFree-Certificate-of-Appointment-of-Chapter-11-Trustee
Patrick
Remember when TelexFree was all happy about a Trustee being appointed? Well, that was if Stuart McMillan would be appointed as the Trustee. Of course they were delusional if they thought that was going to happen.
I bet TelexFree is not all happy about a Trustee being appointed now.
Stuart A. MacMillan
This man is going to participate in something
In recovery (chapter 11)?
He is a freelance MLM executive hired by Merrill and Wanzeler as TelexFree CEO in the hours just prior to the bankruptcy filing on April 13. He has testified that he believes TelexFree can restructure, form a new compensation plan and continue as a going concern.
He’s basically the only TelexFree executive left standing. He fired Wanzeler on April 17 and caused Merrill and Joe Craft, the CFO, to resign, according to his testimony. Records assert the firing/resignations occurred on the same day Wanzeler boarded a flight from Toronto bound for Brazil.
Some folks in Brazil appear to believe that the appointment of the trustee and the presence of MacMillan somehow mean TelexFree has been given a clean slate and has been ruled not to be a Ponzi/pyramid scheme. That is simply untrue.
Language barriers could be contributing to this misunderstanding. Or it might not be a misunderstanding, at least not in certain quarters. Some folks deliberately could be spreading misinformation because they fear litigation themselves or because they want to dupe the people into believing all is well at TelexFree.
On another front, they might be implying (or saying) TelexFree has been cleared because they want to recruit people into other, TelexFree-like scams. They could dupe people into joining by telling them TelexFree has been cleared, so the next “program” won’t be a problem.
TelexFree, however, has been cleared of nothing.
All is not well at TelexFree. There is an active criminal case that involves Merrill and Wanzeler. There also is a criminal grand-jury investigation, which means criminal indictments could be returned — potentially against Merrill, Wanzeler and others.
A major SEC civil probe also is under way. Other shoes could drop there, too. The Massachusetts Securities Division also has an open investigation. On top of those, there are multiple civil lawsuits that allege securities fraud and racketeering.
We’ll know more over time as the trustee proceeds with his duties and the various agencies release more information in the form of court filings or statements.
As noted above, TelexFree has been cleared of nothing. It potentially faces intense, protracted litigation on multiple fronts, and an asset freeze is in place. There also are challenges to its licensing.
In my book, if TelexFree promoters are pitching other, TelexFree-like opportunities after being in TelexFree, then they are running the same risk of prosecution as the original crew now facing charges.
Patrick
Are saying that it is within the recovery. He was not away with the appointment of stephen darr?
If you’re talking about MacMillan, he is an executive of TelexFree, the Debtor. The Debtor was consulted about the Darr appointment, so that likely means MacMillan was consulted. So were the SEC and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Things will become clearer over time. But if TelexFree members believe TelexFree has been cleared, they’d be wrong.
Patrick
The language is that complicated. I just wanted to know if this new phase (chapter 11) he will have some role, function within the company. Just this. I know who he is. His biography
I don’t know the answer, Billy. Time will tell.
Patrick
MacMillian was actually HIRED from the gang leaders weeks before they tried the bunkruptcy move.
The ideia was using his reputation (and nationality) to reinforce the image that the ‘company’ was legal and solid.
Like I mentioned in the other post, the real structure of the piramid is slightely diferent the structure of the ‘company’.
Sann Rodrigues is the number one.
Then you have Wanzeler and Merril.
Then you have guys like Carlos Costa (brazilian branch), Santiago de la Rosa (Dominican rep connection), etc…
Parallel to all of this, you have some american guys hired as consultant just to bless the company with their reputation like a I said. Guys like MacMillan and Joe Craft. This guys didnt have a network below them like all the others. They just receive money to show up as ‘100% Telexfree’ men.
This is for Billy D Costa: Billy meu caro esse site é excelente faça um esforço pra perceber o que o inglês porque vale a pena, o Patrick ta muito bem informado. Esse site aliás é uma das minhas fontes também. Vemo-nos lá no youtube… ;-)
Patrick, many thks for putting so much precise and reliable information about those scammers. In a deep sea of misinformation is always great to find someone exposing the facts…
Just to put some more light in how big the scam is:
Merril was also important because his brother have A SMALL BANK they used to move enourmous amounts of money to other accounts.
Sann and Wanzeler have also dozens of millions in accounts spread in offshores and Asia banks. Those acounts are not seized by SEC. The accounts in Asia are most of all filled with WCM777 pyramid’s money. San have also lots of his money reinvested in small pyramids worldwide, I’m not sure how many of those was created by him.
Carlos Costa’s wife (or ex-wife ?) Raquel Costa is associated with ‘Wings Network’, a piramid brazilians created in Portugal (speaks same language), most of all people from Telexfree. This scam was also shut down in US by SEC a few days ago.
Wanzeler cousins also participate in other schemes like PRASKS and so on. Like other top leaders they seems to have no fear of showing their real faces on youtube, facebook, etc.
thank you DM Pontes and Patrick. I echo your words DM Pontes
I am still shocked that the man, Joe Craft, trying to scoot with 37 million in cashiers checks is still not charged. WTH? Wasn’t he orchestrating the laundering scheme?
Well all hell is letting loose here in Spain. TelexFree has made headlines and national TV news – and not the way they had in mind. lol
Una pirámide de codicia/A Pyramid of Greed
Thanks for this, LORM. I thought the El Pais story deserved a special mention here, so I referenced it in this story:
https://patrickpretty.com/2014/07/06/recommended-reading-50000-spaniards-reportedly-plowed-money-into-telexfree/
Patrick