REPORT: TelexFree Has No License To Offer VOIP Services In Brazil; Claim Reminiscent Of U.S. Government Assertion Against AdSurfDaily Ponzi Schemer Last Year
UPDATED 12:29 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) TelexFree, which operates through Ympactus Comercial Ltd. and is under investigation amid allegations in Brazil it is running a massive pyramid scheme, has no license with Brazil’s telecommunications regulator to offer VOIP services, according to this report in Brazilian media. The regulatory agency is known as Anatel.
Here is a translation from Portuguese to English by Google Translate.
Although the degree to which Anatel regulates VOIP providers in Brazil was not immediately clear, the assertion was reminiscent of one the U.S. government made against AdSurfDaily Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin last year: that Bowdoin, now in federal prison for ASD’s $119 million fraud, earlier had sold contracts for a telecommunications company that wasn’t licensed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
TelexFree denies it falls under Anatel’s regulatory framework.
Bowdoin, 78, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the ASD case in May 2012, less than a month after the U.S. government made the assertions that he’d ignored FCC regulations in a pre-ASD securities scam in Alabama in the 1990s. Prosecutors also linked Bowdoin to the AdViewGlobal HYIP scam and a purported venture known as OneX that allegedly recycled money in ASD-like fashion.
ASD, an MLM company, promised to pay members 1 percent a day. A grand jury charged Bowdoin with selling unregistered securities as investment contracts, securities fraud and wire fraud. He was arrested in December 2010.
Like ASD, TelexFree is an MLM company. Some TelexFree promoters claim a payment of $15,125 to the firm for the purchase of a “contract” fetches a profit of more than $42,000 in a year.
There have been reports of death threats against a judge and prosecutor involved in the TelexFree case in Brazil.
AdViewGlobal and OneX also were MLM companies. In 2011, Bowdoin claimed he was pushing OneX to pay for his criminal defense in the ASD Ponzi case. Prosecutors described OneX as a pyramid scheme.
A judge banned Bowdoin from MLM in 2012. The same judge earlier had been targeted with false liens by Kenneth Wayne Leaming, a purported “sovereign citizen” who allegedly was performing legal work for certain ASD members while harboring two federal fugitives from Arkansas wanted in a separate home-business caper.
Leaming, 57, was arrested by an FBI terrorism Task Force in 2011. He was convicted of the charges in March 2013 and was sentenced to eight years in federal prison.
I’m here in the US working with telexfree since 12-2012, I can tell that I am making a really good money, honest company pay every week. I can say that am 100% telexfree.
So, are you saying, “I am close enough to the top of this pyramid to get paid and I don’t give a **** about all the people at the bottom that will lose their money”?
Are you really ignorant or is it willful blindness that stops you seeing that the money you are making is money other people lose?
Does it bother your conscience at all?
Thom
Plausible deniability, Thom. Don’t know and don’t care to know. It’s not them scamming the people, it’s TelexFree, and they’ll ride it as long as they can, and in order to live with themselves they have to deny it’s a scam. They can’t POSSIBLY be stupid enough to join a scam… Therefore it can’t be a scam.
Goodmorning,
oh well, I am one of the member of the Telexfree opportunity, I know it real business and real income. I live in USA its legal operation approve by USA Law. The government always want to support this great opportunity to grown into the future of US Market. We just wait till Obama approve to support this powerful opportunity………..whateven people say………all whateven we do else there make it is Legal Business for who need to become once your own success and live in peace.
Godbless all of American and people around the world.
Oh brother! First, as someone who has extensive experience in regulatory compliance and has interacted with agencies such as the FTC, SEC, and others prior to my network marketing career, as well as having over 30 years of experience in the network marketing industry and considered one of the industry’s top leaders and experts (my partner and I have a combined more than 65 years of network marketing experience, had groups generate over $2 billion in sales, we’ve earned millions of dollars, been featured in various industry publications and websites, experts in pay plans, regulatory compliance (done consulting work with 2 of the industry’s top attorneys over the past 15 years-one a former prominent state Attorney General and the other Herbalife’s lead international attorney for more than 20 years), and international expansion), first, you obviously have no knowledge or experience in regards to network marketing, regulatory compliance, and various laws and statutes as they pertain to business opportunities and network marketing!
There is NO U.S. regulatory agency that “approves” any specific network marketing company and/or opportunity! (The landmark FTC case involving Amway legitimized the concept of network marketing, but not any specific company!)
Second, the Telex FREE program has so many regulatory red flags it should at the front of a Russian parade! I’m surprised it took regulators in Brazil and the U.S. this long to initiate an investigation, and will be extremely surprised if they do not shut this company down for being nothing more than an internet money game, an ILLEGAL pyramid scheme.
First, programs that have a one time cost of entry and no minimum monthly performance requirements in order to earn income are automatically considered to be ILLEGAL pyramid schemes by most regulators, especially when combined with various other factors that are mentioned below!
Regulators like to see some minimum monthly performance requirements that you have to meet in order to justify you receiving an income, especially on people you don’t know! (For example, to avoid regulatory problem and to ensure that they had a minimum 3 to 1 customer (non-business participant) to distributor ratio, telcom opportunities like EXCEL and ACN resorted to a 6 customer rule in order for you to earn commissions and bonuses…it appears you can make money in Telex FREE for doing nothing more than recruiting someone-at least that is what a number of distributors are promoting. (So, even if the company has a customer acquisition rule, if distributors are running around making statements that you can make money without having to sell anything, etc., regulators will still consider the program to be an illegal pyramid scheme!)
Furthermore, regulators like the FTC like to see a 50/50 split regarding the revenue coming into the company from which the commissions and bonuses are paid-50% from distributors and 50% from non-business participants…with such a huge emphasis on recruiting, I seriously doubt Telex would meet this threshold.
Third, a number of distributors are “guaranteeing” income, which now automatically qualifies whatever they are selling to be a “security” in the eyes of the SEC-only banks and approved financial institutions/services can guarantee an income. In order to sell a “security,” one must have a securities license. When either the company, and/or you, can’t provide one, you’re busted! (This is one way they hit Zeek Rewards for being an illegal pyramid scheme!)
In addition, a number of people are promoting the buying of multiple positions (up to 11-cost of $15,000+), which will catch the attention of regulators, and subject them to illegal pyramiding charges, especially in combination with all of the above points already made!
This is nothing more than a $290 to $1200 internet money game/illegal pyramid scheme hiding behind a voip service in order to give it the appearance of legitimacy..First, they’re not an approved vendor for VOIP if the current news reports are accurate…second, what they are selling for around $50 a month you can get for free or considerably less from other voip/sip sources online.
Furthermore, programs like this (does Ad Surf Daily ring a bell?) with virtually an identical approach (get paid to post ads, others to read ads, etc.) have been tried and NEVER succeeded! In fact, almost all of them have been shut down by regulators!
The Telex FREE program is now hitting a number of countries in Africa, where they are illegally operating! (They do not have licenses to market telecommunications services, no business license or registration, etc.). Unfortunately, because most Africans (and this includes government regulatory agencies) have little to no knowledge about regulatory compliance as it pertains to network marketing, what constitutes a legitimate network marketing opportunity versus an illegal money game or illegal pyramid scheme, programs like Rocket Cash Cycler and Telex Free are free to hoodwink people into parting with hundreds to thousands of dollars of their hard earned money.
Perhaps most concerning, when experts like me try to warn them, they either want to argue, or ignore what they’re told or shown. Even after showing someone today 2 of the articles that show Telex Free is under investigation for being an illegal pyramid scheme in both Brazil and the U.S., the person wanted to ignore reality (saying the media is just looking to stir up trouble-LOL!)and simply accused me of talking “bad” about Telex Free. As we say in the U.S., “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!”
My response was, “Jim Rohn, one of my mentors and coaches over 30 years ago, once said, ‘If someone is headed down the wrong road, they don’t need motivation! What they need is an education in order to turn around.” If you were headed down a road you’d never driven on, and you were coming up on a bend and driving too fast, would you want me to 1) try to warn you that at the speed you’re driving your car, it will go off the curve and down a cliff and you’ll be killed, or 2) simply watch you drive by and do nothing, knowing you’re about to take a curve at too high a speed and drive off the cliff? The answer is “Duh” (#1) if you have half a brain! However, there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and some people just have to learn the hard way, which will apparently be the case with those involved with Telex FREE, just like it was with TVI Express, JSS Tripler/Just Been Paid, Ad Surf Daily, and the numerous other types of internet oriented and advertising deals that have come and gone!
Anyone involved with Telex FREE is either new to the industry and/or knows nothing about regulatory compliance as it relates to a network marketing company and opportunity!
P.S. The fact that you or anyone else is making money does NOT make the program legal nor legitimate! People make money all the time in money games and illegal pyramid schemes (It’s part of the lure to attract new people!), and the fact that it has been around for awhile doesn’t make it legal either! Doesn’t the Bernie Madoff case ring a bell? He was able to perpetuate his $50 billion illegal Ponzi/pyramid scheme for several decades before he got caught! LOL!
I’m just amazed at the number of people who have little to no knowledge about network marketing, comp plans, regulatory compliance, etc., who want to argue with real experts!
As far as the Obama comment, if you honestly think that’s happening, you really are delusional!
You are one of the sheeple that managed to get money out rather than pay money in. How many did you recruit?
Law does not “approve” businesses. You living in the US does not mean US “approves” of you.
Government closes scams. Just looked at FHTM, Zeek Rewards, and other scams.
You can wait until he leaves office, and then what? Ain’t gonna happen. No president “approves” any company.
There is nothing legal about TelexFree. You can’t make an illegal business “legal” without destroying its nature.
God bless fools and idiots who believe in false prophet of money. May they deviate from slippery slope into Hell. Amen.
All of you Telexfree haters are really clueless to how the world in general works as well as big business…its so simple
most big corporations are pyramids…one big boss at the top, lots of employees at the bottom…thats economics you morons
then speaking of scams…the medical profession is probably the largest scam out there!!! doctors keeping peopld sick with pharmaceuticals etc, knowing they are creating more disease…so your saying all nurses and people working for medical are scammers? they are participating are they not?
the stock market is a hug PONZI!!!! its all about big money taking money from the retail investors/long term mutual funds etc…
invisible hand ring a bell anyone? some of you are so naive…most have some stocks through retirement etc…so you are participating in the biggest ponzi of all…are you not a scammer?
point is we all have skin in the game…its all about cash flow etc…learn your basic economics…yes, telex is a suspicious business and probably some scam underneath..but so what???
most business models are meant to make a few up top rich while the rest work and work and never make it…its call life !!!! wake up people
The “haters” deflection — again.
Some of the “defenders” of the $600 million Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme made largely this same ad hominem argument. So did the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid HYIP scammers.
Here you introduce a straw-man deflection and bizarrely argue with yourself — all while trying to attribute a countervailing argument that never was made at the PP Blog TO the PP Blog.
Here’s a hypothetical “so what” for you, John. If you live in the United States, you or your family, loved ones and friends might own real estate and treat it as an asset that will gain value over time. A person’s home typically is his or her greatest asset when he or she reaches retirement age.
But if there’s a downline group from TelexFree (or Zeek or ANY HYIP scheme) in your neighborhood, your neighbors could be throwing their wealth at a fraud scheme and setting themselves up for a foreclosure or a lawsuit from a credit-card company.
If enough foreclosures and defaults occur in your neighborhood or region, the value of the real estate owned by you, your family, your loved ones and friends may plunge. Everybody gets poorer because a pitchman for fraud schemes was operating in the neighborhood or region. People you care about, including yourself, also might end up paying higher interest rates on credit cards and higher fees on banking transactions because an HYIP fraudster was trying to get money for himself while pillaging neighborhoods and regions to do it.
Patrick
Quick note: I’m now advised by a TelexFree spammer targeting this thread to “cut the B.S.”
Patrick
I know a lot of people, friends of mine who is spending all they money with telexfree. The big ones said to them something like work only 10 minutes a day and be rich. I fell so bad for them, there’s people losing 30, 40 thousand and I feel really surprised how this still become legal in US. There is nothing that can be done? They will just stay acting and nothing happens to them? I expected more from the laws. I’m sorry for my poor english.
Hello DD,
Might not be a good idea to assume TelexFree is legal in the United States.
Your English is a heck of a lot better than my Portuguese!
Sounds as though your friends are lucky to have you.
Take care.
Patrick
Does anybody have more information or a link to the story of Telexfree being investigated in the US. I know about the Brazil situation but I have looked for stories about the US investigating Telexfree and have not found anything. Thanks.
So, when FBI will close and arrest everyone involve with this TelexFree shit , cause, I still receiving invitations , and I tired about see thoses assholes makes alot money, and I fuck wake up early evey day to make my !
came on FBI , shut the shit off !
In the grand scale of things, Zack, TelexFree is a relatively small and therefore low priority HYIP ponzi fraud in the USA.
My prediction would be TelexFree USA will die the “natural” HYIP ponzi death before it gets sufficiently large enough to come under the scrutiny of regulators
Hello You are all asshole who is not doing telexfree do telexfree and earn good money rather than asshole talking
You’re emerging as an effective and thoughtful spokesperson for TelexFree. Did you take the standard or the advanced PR training?
Patrick
damn that’s funny.
Patrick, could you please answer this quote?
I do not know if TelexFree is under investigation in the United States.
What I do know is that the Feds aren’t apt to telegraph it if a probe is under way.
My personal belief is that TelexFree is a massive Ponzi scheme, potentially as large or even larger than Zeek Rewards. I also think that TelexFree is the preeminent example of HYIP cross-border fraud in the world today.
TelexFree is brewing a very dangerous cocktail and is engaging in the worst pandering I’ve ever seen from one of these “programs.”
Patrick
Thank you for your response, I could have done without the sarcastic telegraph comment, but thank you just the same. Take care.
j,
It wasn’t intended as sarcasm; it was intended as a garden-variety observation. If you’re reading sarcasm into it, you’re reading it the wrong way.
You, too, j.
Patrick
I read it in the minds of all those trying to fight fend off Telexfree for being a scam, as people trying to fight for justice. but is there going to be a reign of justice ever in the world? sorry, in Africa we have lost hope. i personerly think the FBI has a lot more meaningfull work to do than investigate TelexFree, unless ofcourse if we should believe that the US Government is behind more dangerous/terrible scams to life. what about the African Presidents torturing/killing people everyday yet you hear that US is pumpering them with money to buy Guns in guise of helping poor countries? just because after looting the US takes a share in kind of their Interests! the US better put their power and their so called tough laws and regulations to more meaningful issues than leave heynas and lions to chase flies and then blug of how Angelic they are. if all of you people making an alarm agaisnt Telexfree were directing your efforts on more meaningful fights like corruption and terrrorism it would fetch a thanx, otherwise sorry lets do Telexfree until you dry our luck which you are trying to do. am better robbed than killed
thanx
So, your argument boils down to…
While there are unresolved murder cases, the authorities should not use any time investigating and shutting down swindels and confidence tricks.
Yeah! That’ll work. Just give the white collar criminals free reign to do whatever they want.
Thom
Jim,
Serious questions: TelexFree purportedly is a business opportunity. Why are you making a political statement?
If the SEC, FBI and Secret Service (the U.S. government) move against TelexFree, should the TelexFree executives in the Boston region (United States) defend the “program” by castigating their own government? Should they follow your lead and try to deflect from the Ponzi/pyramid issues by referencing despots in Africa?
How much time have you spent at the PP Blog, Jim? In addition to Ponzi/pyramid schemes, securities fraud and online crime, we cover domestic terrorism and extremism here.
Perhaps you heard about this horrible incident in Boston last year:
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/04/18/bulletin-fbi-releases-photos-video-of-2-men-deemed-suspects-in-boston-marathon-bombing-men-considered-armed-and-extremely-dangerous/
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/04/19/suspect-1-reported-dead-extraordinary-drama-plays-out-in-greater-boston-1-police-officer-killed-another-wounded/
https://patrickpretty.com/2013/04/19/urgent-bulletin-moving-bombing-suspect-in-custody-boston-police-say/
I am going to assume you truly are feeling this way, which is to say feeling desperate. If you truly are feeling desperate to this extent, then I’d say your words are the saddest ever recorded at the PP Blog.
In my view, it would be a terrible mistake for Africans living with so much desperation to view TelexFree as a rising tide that will life all boats and reduce or eradicate poverty.
A couple of weeks ago, TelexFree appears to have had a camera crew in Miami (United States) to capture the arrival of a limousine. Then, there was a videotaped signing ceremony of the sponsorship contract with the Botafogo football club in Brazil.
Before long, TelexFree produced what effectively was a commercial showing the arrival of the limo. If you look closely at that commercial, you’ll see that TelexFree also saw fit to show a split screen that showed yet-another limo arriving at yet-another glitzy location.
Those images of glitter and ritz are impossibly at odds with the desperation you’re describing in Africa, but maybe now TelexFree has the people in Africa’s impoverished and/or corrupt nations seeing themselves stepping out of a limo at a glitzy hotel and perhaps wearing a crisp business suit.
It makes me want to projectile vomit, actually.
Patrick
dude u deserve a Nobel prize!!! wake up and we may have time to fix our civilization….
telexfree is the real deal…… check out my videos on youtube. Im actually showing beginners how its done lol. ok, enough with the rubbish, check it out and let me know what you think.
[Link 1 Deleted by PP Blog] ( how to post your daily ads)
[Link 2 Deleted by PP Blog] ( get your $$$)
[Link 3 Deleted by PP Blog] ( step by step presentation)
if you are thinking about joining and need help, contact me at [Link 4 Deleted by PP Blog . . .]
another exciting business to check [Link 5 Deleted by PP Blog]
Stop trying to power-spam your TelexFree promos, Moe. You’re up to six spams in two threads.
Patrick
A friend of mine called me to tell me about the “amazing TelexFree” opportunity that he was told about. Of course, we were shown an account with money “invested” (~75K) and “profited” (variable withdrawals). Long story short, he fell into the mindset of “That guy is clearly making money so I can as well.” I hesitated and began my research. Reading this thread was enough for my disinterest in participating in the scheme.
Now to my question:
When the scheme tanks or is just shut down by the SEC, what happens to the “company” and it’s monetary assets involved? My guess is that it is seized. Is it just safe to assume that my friend has simply lost his ~$4300 he put into it last week? Lastly, I have seen online, by searching “Telexfree + investigation,” that an investigation with the US SEC was started. Something about 40K pages of evidence to be reviewed. Think I saw a site mention that they were looking to have the case finished by mid 2014. Where do I find more concrete evidence on TelexFree being a scam so I can convince my friend to get out while he can? What credible sites can I use to follow this story?
Hater
Why don’t you stop being a hater and join. Dont wish bad to others because may comeback to you. Btw time to go to work while I make my $2000 per week
All I can say is I’m a telexfree promoter from a small country in Africa but iv lost everything. The deal was really good so I put in all my money. Two weeks later the SEC comes in telexfree shuts down and that was the end of me. Thr talking of refunding people in Brazil, how about us in Africa. We dnt Hv much. Atleast somethin should be done. If telex robbed from us Atleast let them be able to pay back those who joined since last December 2013