TelexFree Website Will Not Load

The website of TelexFree will not load this afternoon. Whether this signals a development in the TelexFree Ponzi, pyramid and bankruptcy cases was not immediately clear.

The website of TelexFree will not load this afternoon. Whether this signals a development in the TelexFree Ponzi, pyramid and bankruptcy cases was not immediately clear.

EDITOR’S NOTE ADDED 1:32 P.M. EDT SEPT. 28 U.S.A. TelexFree.com appears to be back online. At this time, why the landing page wouldn’t load remains a mystery. Our earlier story is below . . .

The website of TelexFree, alleged in April by the SEC and the Massachusetts Securities Division to have operated a billion-dollar pyramid and Ponzi scheme across state and national borders, will not load. Nor will the domain return a ping.

This condition appears to have surfaced in recent hours. The site previously included TelexFree-authored words written in April or May that suggested TelexFree somehow could emerge from bankruptcy. Stephen B. Darr, a court-appointed trustee, is now administering TelexFree. He has said he has no intention of reorganizing or reactivating the company.

Websites involved in Ponzi schemes sometimes are seized by court order or voluntarily surrendered by the operators. Receivers and trustees later sometimes use the URLs for the domains to publish news that concerns investors.

Why TelexFree.com won’t load is unclear. The office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, which is leading the criminal prosecutions of TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Merrill and Wanzeler have been charged with wire fraud and wire-fraud conspiracy.  U.S. prosecutors have called Wanzeler a fugitive who ducked out of the United States through Canada under cover of darkness — and later flew to Brazil.

Like their U.S. counterparts in April, Brazilian federal police conducted TelexFree-related raids in July.

The SEC yesterday filed a pyramid-scheme action against a “program” known as Zhunrize that also allegedly operated across state and national borders.

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3 Responses to “TelexFree Website Will Not Load”

  1. Well something is still hooked up as it is actively refusing connections. Could be many things, but I’m betting with the amount of time logged between now and the shutdown, there is only one IP for this segment, logs are piling up, and from there you get the burp (Connection Refused|

  2. Hello LB,

    It is my guess — and it’s only a guess — that the reason the site won’t load pages will become clear in the coming days.

    Here’s hoping so, at least.

    Hope you are well.

    Patrick

  3. Quick note: TelexFree.com appears to be back online. The language on the page looks to be the same as before the page stopped loading, but the formatting is different.

    I don’t know what explains this.

    Patrick