In Immigration Fraud Case, TelexFree Figure Sann Rodrigues Sentenced To Time Served And 2 Years’ Supervised Release

UPDATED 1:56 P.M. ET U.S.A. TelexFree figure Sann Rodrigues could have been sentenced to 10 years for immigration fraud. Instead, he was sentenced yesterday to time served. The office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts said early this afternoon that Rodrigues ended up spending 57 days behind bars after his May 2015 arrest on the immigration charge.

A citizen of Brazil, according to court filings, Rodrigues presented his U.S. “green card to Customs and Border Protection Officers on May 3, 2015, at Logan Airport [in Boston], knowing that he obtained that document based upon false statements to immigration officials,” prosecutors said.

Rodrigues was not charged criminally for his involvement in TelexFree, perhaps the largest combined Ponzi- and pyramid scheme in history. SEC civil charges brought against him in April 2104 remain intact, as does other TelexFree-related civil litigation.

A veteran huckster who once claimed “God” invented MLM and “binary,” Rodrigues potentially faces large financial judgments for his TelexFree behavior, which followed earlier behavior in a scheme known as Universo Fone Club prosecuted by the SEC in 2006.

Rodrigues also promoted a collapsed “program” known as IFreeX.

U.S. criminal prosecutors said Rodrigues was freed after sentencing in Massachusetts yesterday and will be on supervised release for two years.

During his period of supervised release, he is “required to comply with any immigration-related orders, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Because Rodrigues, a Brazilian national, now has been convicted of a felony, he is subject to “administrative immigration proceedings” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Such actions potentially could lead to deportation.

NOTE: Our thanks to the ASD Updates Blog.