REPORTS: TelexFree Figure Murdered In Brazil

Dorian da Silva Santos. known simply as Dorian. Source: TelexFree promo on YouTube.

3RD UPDATE 3:17 P.M. EDT U.S.A. Dorian da Silva Santos, described by Bloggers and in media accounts as a politician and promoter of TelexFree in Brazil, reportedly has been found murdered execution-style in the Brazilian state of Bahia.

The news adds to a disturbing series of events that, since at least 2013, have become part of the TelexFree story.

One account in Portuguese says Dorian was found Tuesday. He reportedly was shot about six times in the head “and had his hands tied behind him with a mobile phone charger wire,” according to a Google translation from Portuguese to English of a story at criativaonline.com.br.

Authorities reportedly are trying to determine if the crime has any link to Dorian’s TelexFree participation through a company known as Ympactus in Brazil. With illicit business reportedly totaling more than $3 billion and hundreds of thousands of participants globally, TelexFree may be the largest MLM-related Ponzi- and pyramid-scheme of all time.

Blogger Paul Joseph (Paulo José) wrote that Dorian was running for mayor of the city of Serra Preta and was found in the Humble district in Feira de Santana. The body was found in a vacant lot. Attributing information to police, Joseph reported that the body was found with “signs of torture and firearm shots to the head,” according to a Google translation of the original report in Portuguese.

In the United States, Stephen B. Darr, the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for TelexFree, said he was aware of the reports in Brazil about Dorian’s death. The news was awful, he told the PP Blog.

“We do not believe he was a participant in the US-Based TelexFree operation — just Ympactus,” Darr wrote.

There have been various threats surrounding TelexFree. In 2014, for example, there were reports in Peru about a TelexFree promoter being kidnapped and held in a van. The kidnapping reportedly was carried out by TelexFree members who ordered the man to withdraw money from a bank to make them whole.

At least one judge and prosecutor in Brazil reportedly received death threats. American MLMers continued to promote TelexFree, despite the disturbing news in Brazil and the blocking of TelexFree assets there in 2013.

Some TelexFree participants apparently were so eager to build a downline that they spammed the funeral notice of a TelexFree member who’d reportedly committed suicide in 2013.

NOTE: On July 21, Globo.com reported in Portuguese that two suspects have been arrested. They reportedly are bandits who sought to rob Dorian because they believed he was rich and later engaged police in a gunfight.

Google English translation.