NEW STANDARD FOR MLM DISINGENUOUSNESS: Words DON’T Mean Things

Sann Rodrigues

Has a globetrotting serial huckster facing a civil-contempt proceeding in the SEC’s pyramid- and Ponzi case against TelexFree, key executives and promoters set the new standard for vomitous MLM?

Accused of repeatedly violating U.S. court orders, Brazil native, TelexFree promoter and two-time accused securities fraudster Sann Rodrigues now effectively is hoping to convince a federal judge that spoken words don’t mean things. In the face of multiple videos showing him speaking English, Rodrigues is claiming through attorneys that he “does not speak English” and that he “is almost completely unable to read English and has between no proficiency and an elementary proficiency in speaking in English,” according to the SEC.

And, Rodrigues contends,  he “did not understand the asset freeze orders because he can barely speak English,” the SEC contends.

The claims amount to “nonsense,” the SEC argued in a memo to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton. The memo included links to two videos showing Rodrigues speaking English. (One of them is below.)

Whether Rodrigues will be able to convince the judge that spoken words don’t mean things is a question likely to be answered in the days immediately ahead — and the task perhaps just got harder.

That’s because the SEC today filed an affidavit from a Florida banker who says he spoke with Rodrigues in person approximately every two weeks from August 2014 to May 2015.

Rodrigues had eight corporate accounts, and all of them were closed by the bank, according to the banker.

Moreover, all the conversations took place “entirely in the English language,” the banker said.

And, the banker said, all of the forms “filled out and signed by Mr. Rodrigues were entirely in the English language.”

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.