BULLETIN: Class-Action Proposed Against 20,000 Alleged TelexFree Winners — With MAPS Pitchman As Lead Defendant
BULLETIN: Class-action attorney Robert J. Bonsignore has asked a federal judge for permission to file a third amended consolidated complaint that effectively would sue at least 20,000 “net winners” in the TelexFree scheme shut down by the SEC last year.
The proposal would name alleged TelexFree promoter Daniil Shoyfer the lead class-action defendant, effectively making him the Todd Disner of TelexFree-related court actions. Disner is a Zeek Rewards figure sued by Zeek receiver Kenneth D. Bell in clawback actions aimed at more than 9,000 alleged winners in the Zeek scheme shuttered by the SEC in 2012.
Disner also promoted the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme broken up by the U.S. Secret Service in 2008.
The PP Blog reported in June 2015 that Shoyfer also was promoting a scheme known as MyAdvertisingPays — or MAPS, for short.
If the judge approves the proposal by Bonsignore, it would appear to mark the first time alleged TelexFree winners have been targeted en masse for the return of their alleged winnings from a scheme the SEC has described as a massive pyramid- and Ponzi fraud. Up to $1.8 billion flowed through TelexFree, now in the hands of a court-appointed trustee who has called it a pyramid scheme.
Web records showed that Shoyfer also was promoting MAPS alongside MAPS colleagues such as U.K. hucksters Simon Stepsys and Shaun Smith.
Smith is alleged by the receiver in the Zeek Rewards Ponzi- and pyramid case to be one of the largest Zeek “winners” in the United Kingdom.
Bell, the Zeek receiver, has raised questions about MLMers moving from one fraud scheme to another.
Bonsignore’s proposed amended complaint on the TelexFree front may lead to similar questions. At a minimum, the development highlights the dangers of fraud schemes that spread at least in part though the Internet to involve hundreds of thousands of participants. Victims can pile up in extraordinary numbers, and a fraction of participants who emerge as winners can end up confronting lawsuits and expensive, emotionally draining litigation.
MAPS, a purported advertising scheme similar to AdSurfDaily, continues to operate.
NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.
Lawyer Tim Durken has been following the TelexFree actions and has provided a link to the proposed amended class action.
It’s accessible through this Twitter post:
Looks tome as though the proposed complaint by Robert Bonsignore comes in response to the problem of MLM scam affiliates collecting money from individual downline recruits. We’ve seen this in Zeek, AdSurfDaiily, Imperia Invest IBC and TelexFree — among others.
Here is a snippet from the proposed complaint:
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TelexFree openly carried on its unlawful operation in the United States for over two years. During this period, victims made payments for TelexFree memberships (or “AdCentral packages”) in two distinct fashions. As one option, a victim could pay TelexFree directly for an AdCentral package via various payment processing companies that maintained a relationship with TelexFree.
3
In the alternative, and as particularly relevant to the Third Consolidated Amended Complaint, a victim could pay for his or her new AdCentral package by making a cash payment to the TelexFree member who recruited that victim into the scam (the “Direct Victim Payment Recipients”). Since these AdCentral packages represented nothing more than membership in a scam enterprise, they were essentially worthless.
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Patrick