UPDATED 12:21 P.M. EDT (MARCH 28, U.S.A.) Whack-A-Mole. Here’s the latest disturbing incarnation: On March 20, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) published a warning on a gold “program” known as Karatbars International GmbH. BehindMLM.com spotlighted the warning yesterday.
From the AMF warning (bolding added): “With the company’s ‘Affiliates’ program, investors can make Internet-based purchases through Karatbars plans and they are encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates. These Affiliates are in turn encouraged to recruit two other Affiliates each, and so on. Affiliates are lured by the possibility of earning large payouts, in particular through a percentage of amounts collected from the Karatbars plans and gold products purchased by referrals.”
These things apparently meant little to former Zeek Rewards’ pitchman Lloyd Merrifield, who “defended” Karatbars International on BehindMLM. Zeek was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $850 million, according to court records.
AdViewGlobal was an international Ponzi scheme that gathered an unknown sum before vanishing mysteriously in 2009. U.S. federal prosecutors linked it to ASD in April 2012.
Merrifield also was a pitchman for Ad-Ventures4u (ADV4U), an ASD-like HYIP scam tied to shiny-object scam known as “TradingGold4Cash.” And why not Tazoodle, a search-engine “program” whose “board” consisted of former ASD members who had the big idea they were going to unseat Google? Yep. Merrifield was there, too.
Along with ADV4U and Tazoodle, Merrifield pitched something called “20Clicks” as part of an overall package known as “The Golden Eggs.” (In 2009, the 20 Clicks website said it was “Powered by USHBB.com.” USHBB later was associated with the Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme and is listed as a “winner” in a document assembled by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek Ponzi/pyramid case.)
At least one HYIP pitchfest site that describes Merrifield as a “featured speaker” for Karatbars International has led cheers for “programs” such as AdHitProfits and MyFunLife and BannersBroker — and an emerging darling known as FlexKom. The site also has pushed “ProfitClicking,” one of the JSSTripler/JustBeenPaid reload scams linked to former ASD pitchman Frederick Mann.
Mann, among other things, may have ties to the “sovereign citizens” movement.
Merrifield, perhaps ignoring this 2010 FINRA warning on HYIP schemes and social media, pitches Karatbars International on YouTube and coaches viewers to line up recruits via craigslist.
Source: YouTube
On BehindMLM, Merrifield says he’s been “in the Investment Banking industry for over 35 years.”
As always, HYIP “programs” and similar ventures that may lack licensing in individual jurisdictions across the world raise the prospect that banks and payment processors are coming into possession of funds tainted by fraud. In some cases, those funds have circulated between and among various schemes.
A quick Google search shows that some pitchmen are promoting Karatbars International alongside TelexFree, a “program” under investigation in North America, South America and Africa. TelexFree also has been promoted in concert with the WCM777 MLM scam.
From a video pitch that simultaneously pushes Karatbars International and TelexFree.
UPDATED 12:14 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Being under investigation in Brazil and Massachusetts and getting kicked out of Rwanda apparently isn’t viewed in MLM La-La Land as a strong-enough clue that it’s time to give up the TelexFree ghost.
Or maybe it is — and the TelexFree-related fire sales have begun. It wouldn’t be the first time that members of an HYIP tried to sell their holdings while regulators were circling.
At least in the United States, one of the TelexFree issues is whether the purported “opportunity” is selling unregistered securities as investment contracts. That’s bad enough.
But things potentially could get worse. Individual TelexFree members now may be creating bundles of securities and fueling even more questions about a dangerous TelexFree black market.
An ad for a package of 550 TelexFree AdCentrals appears on a site known as “TripleClicks.” The asking price? $16,760.
Good grief.
The bundle, according to the ad, ships from the United States.
“You Save: $8,190.00 (33%),” the ad contends.
It goes on to say this (italics added):
1) you will pay 16,760$ to get a value of 24,950$ of voip subscription that you can use by your self 2) you will earn up to 110,000$ in one year (minimum guarantee 100% 56,100$ only posting 55 adtext for day) 3) You will get a lot of Vpoints that will be useful for your SFI Business 4) you will be refunded 100% if within about 18 weeks you will not have fully recovered the money spent initially. If of course you did all needed to get back money (it mean 30 minutes copy and paste everyday without sponsoring or sale nothing at all)
so nothing to loose here but only to get…
How the “refunding” would be accomplished wasn’t explained. The ad suggests, however, that TelexFree would “repurchase” the packs over time.
In addition, the ad contends that BehindMLM.com, a site that reports on emerging MLM frauds, has “what I believe is a more skeptical perspective on what is going on behind the Telexfree name.” The ad that bundles TelexFree “AdFamily” packs then asks and answers its own question:
“Does Telex Free Work? I confidently say it works, with Capital Y as in Yes! You see this company has a track record already.”
Visit BehindMLM.com. Among other things, BehindMLM has reported on money-laundering allegations involving TelexFree.
California-based WCM777, an MLM “program,” got booted out of Massachusetts in November 2013, amid allegations of securities fraud and affinity fraud targeted at the Brazilian community through hotel pitchfests. WCM777, purportedly operated by Ming Xu and recruiting affiliates to conduct business over the Internet, later got booted out of California. In addition to the Brazilian community, WCM777 targeted people who speak Spanish and people who speak Chinese, perhaps Christians in particular.
Massachusetts launched a probe into TelexFree, another MLM “program” associated with hotel pitchfests and affiliate recruitment over the Internet, at least by Feb. 28 of this year — probably sooner, given the nature of WCM777. TelexFree largely is targeting speakers of Portuguese and Spanish, perhaps Christians in particular. It also has an affiliate presence in India and Africa (at least).
Although the schemes do not appear to have common ownership, both WCM777 and TelexFree offered plans that encouraged recruits to buy in at higher levels to get higher “earnings.” Affiliates of each scheme appear to have engineered subschemes in which their recruits could buy in at higher levels than the “programs” themselves advertised, potentially introducing a second layer of fraud.
What this means, in essence, is that neither TelexFree nor WCM777 may know their real bottom lines and that the firms created an environment that encouraged back-alley, illegal sales of securities and secret deal-making among individual promoters. Individuals ostensibly acting as brokers for TelexFree and WCM777 could be cherry-picking cash and not even sending it to the “program” operators. In short, certain people could be creating personal and organizational underground economies and fleecing TelexFree and WCM777 even as they fleece their own marks and recruits.
Hidden members of both “programs” may be getting paid in cash by their upline sponsors or ostensible brokers, with no record of their participation — even if they supplied cash or an equivalent to join the “programs.”
The only safe assumption in HYIP Ponzi Land is that any system that can be abused will be abused. That’s why these “programs” necessarily must be viewed through the lens of national security.
Presented below are some screen shots that demonstrate promotional ties between TelexFree and WCM777. In certain instances, the websites pictured below are promoting not only TelexFree and WCM777, but also other “programs.” One of them, for instance, is promoting the almost indescribably insidious and bizarre Banners Broker “program.”
As always is the case in HYIP investigations, the concern is that banks locally, regionally, nationally and internationally are being used by corporate scammers first as warehouses to store illicit proceeds — and later, by individual promoters at potentially thousands and thousands of locations, as virtual ATMs that provide the service of offloading the “earnings” of the promoters.
The interconnectivity of these schemes endangers local, regional, state, provincial and national economies. In many cases, promoters engage in willful blindness and simply move to another MLM HYIP scam when the current “hot” one encounters regulatory intervention or craters on its own.
It’s often the case that promoters plant the seed that a scheme has been endorsed by a government or that a corporate registration is surefire “proof” that no scam exists. Social media invariably is used to help a scheme proliferate or achieve Internet virality.
One of the shots below is from a YouTube video in which a TelexFree promoter seeks to plant the seed that TelexFree is backed by the Better Business Bureau. The narrator’s words in the video suggest he sought to plant the same seed about WCM777 but had to backtrack when he discovered a BBB listing that referred to WCM777 as a Ponzi scheme.
“Today we’re going to compare two of the most dynamic companies out there taking over right now,” the narrator said.
After recording a search of the BBB site for a TelexFree listing and finding one, the narrator suggested that the listing alone was proof that TelexFree was not a scam. He thereafter performed a search for WCM777 and found a Ponzi reference, thus triggering what appeared to be backtracking from his earlier claims that TelexFree and WCM777 were “dynamic companies.”
It also could be the case, we suppose, that he already knew about the WCM777 Ponzi listing before performing the search and that the design all along was to get people to go with TelexFree because WCM777 was a scam. Even under that interpretation, however, the video still demonstrates the underhandedness within the HYIP sphere.
The HYIP sphere always screams incongruity. Keeping that in mind, we’ll point out that one of the screen shots below shows TelexFree executive James Merrill in the same affiliate-manufactured frame as Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin. It was a clear bid to suggest that because TelexFree was registered as a corporation in Massachusetts, the “program” couldn’t possibly be a scam.
That is hogwash, of course. Galvin did not endorse TelexFree when his office approved a corporate registration. Besides, Galvin — as Commonwealth Secretary — oversees both the Massachusetts Corporations Division and the Securities Division. The Securities Division is probing TelexFree and possibly can rely on various documents in the Corporations Division to help investigators connect dots.
Beyond that, the website from which the screen shot promoting TelexFree by marrying images of Merrill and Galvin was taken also is promoting WCM777. Also shown below is an image from the same site in which Merrill is shown posing beside a giant SUV. Contrast that image against the image of Merrill posing in front of a large Massachusetts building as though TelexFree were its only occupant. TelexFree promoters have used the same approach, planting that seed that TelexFree owns the building and has a large physical presence in the United States.
That’s hogwash, too. TelexFree was an occupant of Suite 200 at a Regus center in Marlborough, along with dozens of other companies.
Finally, before observing the shots below, recognize that MLM itself — never a stranger to scandal — may be on the verge of experiencing a PR and legal crisis of unprecedented proportions.
People have harshly criticized hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman for attacking Herbalife. Among his contentions is that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme that targets vulnerable populations. Say what you will about Ackman’s Herbalife claims, but it is crystal clear that affinity fraud and the viral looting of impoverished/disadvantaged people have existed in the MLM realm for a long time and continues to be seen. One might even be inclined to say a market-making fraud blueprint exists within MLM: mow down one affinity cluster or population group and then move to another.
At a minimum, “programs” such as TelexFree and WCM777, which clearly have positioned themselves as wealth recipes for immigrants and vulnerable populations, can help Ackman shape and inform his Herbalife hypothesis.
James Merrill is TelexFree’s president and thus an MLM executive. TelexFree and Merrill, to date, have played into virtually every MLM stereotype that exists — everything from private jets, monster SUVs and stretch limos to business registrations and mail drops in Nevada.
Most disturbingly, though, Merrill represents an American MLM company that has been banned in Rwanda, an African nation that is trying to reverse poverty and receives aid from the World Bank. It’s hard to conceive that MLM — particularly American MLM — could card a worse PR disaster. Regardless, one could be in the offing.
Picture Story
1.
A TelexFree promoter who also promoted WCM777 extends the myth that TelexFree has a large physical presence in the United States and plants the seed that Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin endorsed TelexFree. Galvin’s office is investigating TelexFree after previously booting WCM777 from the state.
2.
A promoter simultaneously pitches TelexFree and WCM777. This shot is from the same site described in the photo above. The site may be based in Ecuador.
3.
This shot is from the same two sites described in the captions above — and features TelexFree President James Merrill posing with a giant SUV.
4.
This shot was taken on the same site described in the three preceding captions above. In this fourth shot, a person promoting both TelexFree and WCM777 claims that the purported parent company of WCM777 provided a loan of $20 million to a restaurant chain that sells Mexican food. The PP Blog has deleted an image of the chain’s logo that appears in the WCM777 promo. The same site plants the seed that WCM has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to jewels of American business.
5.
This site features promos for various purported “opportunities,” including TelexFree and WCM777. Though not shown in the photo, the site also is promoting the uber-bizarre Banners Broker “program.” The site may be based in Italy.
6.
This site also is simultaneously promoting TelexFree and WCM777.
7.
This YouTube site describes TelexFree and WCM777 as “dynamic companies” and plants the seed that TelexFree is endorsed by the Better Business Bureau.
UPDATED 9:24 A.M. EDT (MARCH 22 U.S.A.) TelexFree, alleged to be a pyramid scheme using a VOIP product as a front to mask an investment program, has been under investigation in Brazil since at least June 2013. There’s also an ongoing securities probe in Massachusetts. The government of Rwanda, meanwhile, has announced it booted a TelexFree enterprise after a joint investigation with the African nation’s central bank sparked money-laundering concerns.
Yes, Rwanda has banned TelexFree, something that might set a new standard of embarrassment for an American MLM company. Though the timing may be coincidental, Rwanda did this after a TelexFree pitchman suggested to troops in Boston on March 9 that TelexFree has so much free cash laying around that the two-year-old business can saddle up a “private jet” for trips to Hispaniola and Haiti, perhaps the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Just a week earlier, promos for a TelexFree convention in Spain bragged that the firm was holding a “Gala Dinner” in Madrid and providing “direct Limo Service” to its recruiting stars. TelexFree also sponsors a professional soccer club in Brazil.
One can hardly blame Rwanda if it is protecting its dignity while wondering what happened to the cash gathered from Rwandan affiliates. And because Uganda has signaled it may follow Rwanda’s lead, the imagery in African media of out-of-touch, greedy American MLMers may not be at its zenith. From a PR perspective, these things couldn’t be happening at a worse time for MLM. Herbalife, an industry stalwart, is under investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
There have been rumors for days that Massachusetts-based TelexFree was hiring a CEO. That appears not to have happened. Or, if it has happened, TelexFree hasn’t expressed it clearly in print.
There is a new hand on board, according to a TelexFree news release issued this morning. But nowhere does the release describe the new hand — former MLM telecom executive Stuart A. MacMillan — as TelexFree’s CEO or even as a TelexFree executive. Instead, MacMillan is described in terms that suggest he’s freelance management talent “[s]peaking on behalf of TelexFREE.”
MacMillan doesn’t even get a mention until the tail end of the sixth paragraph of this morning’s release. Instead, the company booted out of Rwanda and under investigation on at least three continents led with an underwhelming headline that highlighted MLM without calling it MLM. “TelexFREE Chooses Tradition of Direct Selling Phone Service.”
So, TelexFree, which says it is a professional communications company, buried whatever news it had and hasn’t made it clear that MacMillan has a title, let alone real decision-making authority. And even if he does have authority, how much of it extends to the overall TelexFree operation is unclear.
There’s a TelexFree LLC based in Nevada that has been denied registration as a telecommunications company in Washington state. Then there’s TelexFree Inc., which operates from Massachusetts. In Florida, there’s a TelexFree International Inc. that was registered on March 14. Also in Florida there’s a TelexFree Tax Service registered March 14, and a TelexFree Financial Inc. registered Dec. 26. Other companies in Florida also use the name TelexFree. So do at least three companies in California.
In Nevada, at least two companies that appear to have ties to TelexFree have been registered since November. These include Telex Mobile Holdings Inc. and TelexElectric LLLP.
Leading With ‘The Gipper’
The opening line of the news release release fondly harkens back to the “mid-1980s” and the phone-sector deregulation that occurred during “the Reagan Administration.”
It could be worse, we suppose. WCM777, an MLM firm kicked out of Massachusetts and California and under investigation on at least two continents for advertising preposterous returns, tried its hand at channeling both President Reagan (of California) and President Kennedy (of Massachusetts) with rhetorical references to a “City upon a Hill.”
President Reagan finished his second and final term as President in January 1989, more than 25 years ago. He died in 2004. Even his political opponents wept.
Now, TelexFree appears to be suggesting that the deregulation he favored during his years in the White House has put the firm on the success track and inspired it to sell Internet telephony to “Brazilian and Hispanic expatriate communities.”
One of the things that happened during the Reagan administration — and this is not a knock on the President, whom we admired — was that doors opened for phone companies to compete on long-distance pricing. Over time, consumer-pleasing downward pressure on prices and lower margins put some firms at death’s door. One of those firms was Excel Communications, an MLM company that formerly employed MacMillan.
A separate release issued today describes TelexFree as an enterprise that “booked 10,859,669 minutes of VOIP calls” last month. It’s a hollow claim, rather like a husband bragging to a wife on Saturday morning that he’d just trimmed 10.8 million blades of grass in the front yard — while conveniently forgetting to mention that a John Deere did all the heavy work.
What TelexFree conveniently is forgetting is that the issue with it is whether the people who used those 10.8 million minutes it “booked” last month would purchase the VOIP service if it were not attached to an “opportunity” affiliates describe as something that could retire government, corporate and consumer debt if the regulators would just leave it alone.
Moreover, the release does not mention that Sann Rodrigues, previously described as the firm’s top pitchman, was accused by the SEC before TelexFree even came into existence of being a pyramid-huckster who roped Brazilians into an affinity-fraud scheme involving a phone-related product.
“You say you haven’t heard of TelexFREE?” the second release queries. “Then you probably aren’t one of the more than 1 million Portuguese-speaking residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
It goes on to say that “[b]efore TelexFREE, Portuguese speakers calling home to Brazil or Portugal were paying high international rates or suffering the frustration of trying to teach elderly parents how to use Skype…after they taught them how to get online.
“In large part due to those frustrations and expenses, Brazilian and Hispanic expatriate communities are embracing the simplicity and economy of TelexFREE.”
Most curious of all in the second release was a TelexFree claim that it “wasn’t until about two years ago that we found a niche community that expressed such overwhelming need for our product.” That’s particularly strange, given that Rodrigues hails from Portuguese-speaking Brazil, as do Portuguese-speaking TelexFree executives Carlos Wanzeler and Carlos Costa.
Rodrigues and Wanzeler, at least, have been pitching phone products to Portuguese-speakers for years. Rival Skype is available in multiple languages, including Portuguese.
Like the first release, the second release doesn’t mention that promoters of TelexFree have claimed that $15,125 sent to the firm fetches back more than $57,000 in a year and that smaller sums of between $289 and $1,375 also virtually triple or quadruple in a year.
The first release, however, at least hints that MacMillan recognizes some in-house problems at TelexFree.
“I see my responsibility as establishing internal governance and an expansion of the products and services,” the release quotes him as saying. “Like so many entrepreneurial companies in the tech space, TelexFREE has been growing so fast, it hasn’t had much time for management. I’ve been brought in to spend that time and to provide that experience, including an end-to-end review of methodologies and controls.” (Emphasis in original.)
Whether MacMillan has the authority to ground the “private jet” to which executives and top reps apparently have access when flying to the Dominican Republic and Haiti was not addressed in the news release. Nor did the release say whether MacMillan planned to eliminate the appearances of limousines in various TelexFree promos or do away with sea-cruise pitchfests.
James Merrill remains TelexFree’s president, according to the second release.
From the second release (italics added):
When asked about the success of the company, President and co-founder Jim Merrill replies, “We have been in VOIP telecommunications for more than a decade; but it wasn’t until about two years ago that we found a niche community that expressed such overwhelming need for our product. Combined with a distribution method that takes our services to them economically, our growth has been exponential.”
It’s as though promising to pay $1,040 on $289, $5,200 on $1,375 and $57,200 on $15,125 — in a year, no less — had nothing to do with it.
Reagan would have thought it madness and advised House Speaker Tip O’Neill that someone was trying to soil that beautiful Massachusetts city upon the hill. And Kennedy would have called TelexFree’s business practices “a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest.”
The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission has rejected a bid by TelexFree LLC to register as a telecommunications company.
TelexFree LLC is not registered as a corporation in Washington state and therefore is ineligible to be registered as a telecommunications firm in the state, the commission said in a finding dated March 13.
How the order will affect TelexFree reps in Washington state was not immediately clear this evening. Also unclear is whether TelexFree LLC will encounter similar problems in other U.S. states. TelexFree LLC is part of an enterprise that already is offering a VOIP product and says it is expanding into cell phones, apps, credit repair and financial advice.
“THE COMMISSION REJECTS the application and petition of Telexfree, LLC, in its entirety,” the order reads in part.
TelexFree LLC’s rejected filing was submitted Feb. 13 by Joseph Isaacs, a “consultant” from Palm Harbor, Fla., according to the state. A “Telexfree LLC Balance Sheet” is listed on the state’s website as part of the submission. The balance-sheet document “properties” lists “JoeCraft” as the author.
As the PP Blog reported on March 9, the balance sheet claims TelexFree LLC has provided millions of dollars in loans to other TelexFree enterprises.
One loan, according to the document, was for more than $3.8 million and went to an entity known as Telexfree Financial Inc. Another loan of more than $2.022 million went to an entity known as TelexElectric LLLP.
In addition, the Washington state document lists a loan of more than $500,000 to an entity known as TelexMobile. Another loan of more than $291,800 went to an entity described as Ympactus. A TelexFree-related entity known as Ympactus Comercial Ltd. is based in Brazil.
TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is associated with Ympactus. Costa said yesterday that TelexFree had been assessed a tax penalty in Brazil of about $30 million.
The government of Rwanda has announced that a TelexFree enterprise has been banned in the African nation after a joint probe with Rwanda’s central bank. Rwanda said it was concerned that the enterprise posed a money-laundering risk. TelexFree, which operates in Massachusetts as TelexFree Inc., is under investigation in its home state. Brazilian prosecutors have called TelexFree a pyramid scheme.
The order in Washington state leaves open the door for TelexFree LLC, which is based in Nevada, to reapply for telecommunications registration if it gets properly registered as a corporation in Washington.
TelexFree LLC appears to have 14 days from March 14 to challenge the order. March 14 was the date the order was posted on the state’s website.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Republic of Rwanda has announced that a TelexFree enterprise has been banned in the country after a joint investigation with the National Bank of Rwanda, the nation’s central bank.
Central banks control monetary policy in their respective countries. Other examples of central banks include the Bank of Canada, Banco Centro do Brasil and the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The move by the Rwandan government and the central bank may mark the first public effort to choke off TelexFree.
Whether TelexFree headquarters in the United States had direct/indirect or no control over the operation in Rwanda was not immediately clear. Nor was it clear whether any help from TelexFree’s U.S. or Brazilian operations would be forthcoming.
Kanimba Francois, Rwanda’s Trade and Industry Minister, signed the order, specifically naming an entity known as P.L.I Telexfree Rwanda Ltd.
How many other TelexFree-related enterprises may be operating in Rwanda wasn’t immediately clear. In theory, a single distributor could recruit tens, hundreds or even thousands of affiliates, with those affiliates creating even more.
TelexFree has thrived, based on assertions that sums sent to the firm triple or quadruple in a year.
Separately, Uganda is signaling that it may follow Rwanda’s lead. The Twitter site of Richard Kabonero, Uganda’s ambassador to Rwanda, has published the Rwanda ban signed by Francois.
A Tweet attributed to Kabonero read, “like [all] good ponzi schemes the people who get in first make the money but eventually they fold.”
@tumksivan@KakandeAlex@tomddumba like alll good ponzi schemes the people who get in first make the money but eventually they fold
Following a common theme when a government moves against an MLM “program,” a fellow Tweeter asserted that Kabonero was jealous because he wasn’t earning money in TelexFree.
RwandaEye, an online financial publication, is reporting that TelexFree operated from the second floor of a supermarket in Remera.
TelexFree is under investigation in Brazil, amid pyramid allegations. The “program” also is under investigation in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
News of the Rwanda ban after the joint probe with the central bank came while some TelexFree affiliates were complaining about not getting paid and poor response to customer-service issues.
On March 14, this message appeared on a Facebook site dubbed “TelexFreeInUSA” (italics added/quoted section verbatim except as noted):
Hello, i opened an account the 27/2/20014 and i payed invoice for a family pack (amount 1425$) the 10/03/2014. In ewallet i recived this message from TelexFree near my payed invoice: “Invoice Number [deleted by PP Blog] Voided as per management request. Package is no longer available”.
!!! AT THIS MOMENT MY ACCOUNT IS NOT ACTIVATED, I HAVE NOT RECIVED A REFUND FROM TELEXFREE, ANYONE ANSWER TO MY EMAILS AND MY SUPPORT REQUESTS !!!
Efforts to get a refund have failed so far, the poster claimed. Many TelexFree affiliates have claimed that purchases of “family packs” generate guaranteed income. Sales of “packs” are typical of HYIP Ponzi schemes.
During this video, TelexFree executive Carlos Costa reportedly talked about a $30 million tax penalty. Costa also showed off the award provided him in Spain earlier this month. Costa appears not to have accepted the award in person, according to a video of the March 1 and 2 event in Madrid. (See related story at bottom of this post.)
UPDATED 9:46 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The video below of TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is in Portuguese. In this particular circumstance, the Google facility to translate captions from Portuguese to English didn’t do much to aid our comprehension. Perhaps one of our readers skilled in both Portuguese and English could provide a summary below of Costa’s remarks. It would be appreciated.
Jornal.US News Service has a story here (in Portuguese) that references the video. The Portuguese translation by Google of the article says TelexFree has been subjected to a penalty by a Brazilian tax authority of “70 million reais.” That’s about $30 million (U.S.).
We are treating this information as nonfinal, which means we may update/amend this PP Blog post as the circumstance becomes more clear and more information becomes available.
If the penalty sum is accurate, it’s hard to see how this is good news for TelexFree reps, particularly amid Ponzi/pyramid concerns elsewhere about TelexFree. That’s because Ponzi/pyramid schemes already are under financial stress before taxation even is taken into consideration.
Beyond that, TelexFree has been tinkering with its compensation plan. Given the tax circumstance, questions now can be raised not only about whether TelexFree is engaging in the sale of unregistered securities in many countries, but also whether the compensation tinkering is designed somehow to minimize cash outflow by making it harder for members to qualify to get paid.
News of the tax penalty comes only days after TelexFree charged affiliates $164 to attend a function in Boston. At the Boston event, a man selling a TelexFree-related credit-repair program talked about being on a “private jet” with others in TelexFree and flying from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.
From a Blog leading dubious cheers for the TelexFree MLM “program.”
UPDATED 12:07 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) You can’t blame legitimate MLMers if they’re feeling a little jittery. Herbalife, one of the industry’s stalwarts, is under investigation by the FTC, which has many duties, including enforcing laws against false advertising and pyramid schemes. Precisely why the FTC is investigating Herbalife is unknown. Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman says Herbalife is a pyramid scheme that plumbs and churns vulnerable population groups. (See Nov. 13, 2013, PP Blog editorial: “Herbalife And Polarization In The Latino Community.”)
A public company, Herbalife itself announced the probe on March 12, saying it had received a “Civil Investigative Demand” (CID) and will “cooperate fully” with the agency.
But even as Herbalife wore a confident face and shared the FTC news, others within the MLM realm were making the trade look ridiculous on a global scale. MLM already is known for train wrecks (see example) and spectacular PR gaffes (see example). The sorry circus taking place outside of Herbalife’s immediate sphere of influence (see below) couldn’t come at a worse time for the firm.
To Herbalife’s credit, there was no attempt to demonize the FTC or pretend the CID was unimportant. So, score an early point for the supplement-maker in the category of PR awareness.
The unfortunate reality for Herbalife, however, is that it is ensconced in an industry that serves up one outrageous scam after another. And because some quirky or downright bizarre MLM “programs” have shown an almost unbelievable ability to raise tremendous sums of money quickly, the issue is not simply about a PR deficit. It’s also about national and cross-border security.
That’s why Herbalife’s conduct while it is under investigation by the FTC matters to the entire trade.
Attempts by Stepfordian MLMers to paint law enforcement as the enemy and dismiss the importance of a CID sent by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to the Zeek Rewards MLM “program” in July 2012 made MLM look silly. Claims from Zeek’s Stepfordian wing that the receipt of a CID was “exciting” news made it look beyond clueless.
Whether the trade likes it or not, all of this Stepfordian behavior gets pinned on “MLM.” And MLM therefore looked particularly ridiculous when the SEC, a month after the North Carolina CID, described Zeek as a Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that had gathered hundreds of millions of dollars in less than two years and had ripped off hundreds of thousands of people by planting the seed it paid an interest rate of 1.5 percent a day and that earnings could be “compounded.”
So, if you’re a legitimate MLMer and need a comforting thought, here’s one for you: Unlike Zeek, Herbalife isn’t trying to sell the “exciting” angle to its legions of members during a government probe. And here’s a tip for legitimate MLMers and individuals considering signing up for an MLM: When someone tells you a government investigation is exciting news, get the hell off the list or stop reading the Blog. Recognize that you’re being splashed with sugary vomit and programmed by an MLM Stepfordian.
The PP Blog’s analysis of Zeek is that it was a criminal enterprise from the start that was designed in part to reel in participants dissatisfied with traditional MLM companies such as Herbalife that sell the dream but have low distributor success rates and high burn rates. Refugees from Herbalife and other traditional MLMs were perfect marks for Zeek’s MLM, a collection of predatory vultures unlike the MLM world had ever seen.
We’re bringing this up because MLM so often ventures into Stepfordland. So, odd as it sounds, Herbalife did itself (and the industry) a favor by avoiding the word “exciting” when describing a CID. For perfectly understandable reasons, it allowed only that it “welcomes the inquiry given the tremendous amount of misinformation in the marketplace” and that it is “confident that Herbalife is in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
Even though Herbalife did not fumble the ball when announcing the probe, the company still needs to work on its messaging. Last year, when the firm was confronting Ackman’s pyramid allegations and companion assertions that it was plumbing and churning Latinos/Hispanics to sustain growth, Herbalife described former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona — a new appointee to its board — as “[b]orn to a poor Hispanic family in New York City.”
In highlighting Carmona’s circumstances as a newborn delivered into poverty in the Big Apple more than 60 years ago, Herbalife perhaps was projecting some stress. Whether it also was projecting an accidental hint of a Stepfordland within Herbalife remains on open question.
Given the disturbing plumbing-and-churning assertions against the firm, Herbalife would have done better by simply announcing Carmona’s appointment and including only his academic/business/public-service credentials in the announcement. It doesn’t matter that other enterprises with which he is involved have used the same line about hailing from a “poor Hispanic family” to describe him. They’re not being accused of pillaging vulnerable populations.
In short, Herbalife cannot afford to be seen as a Stepfordland company. Nothing can erode marketplace confidence faster.
Poor or even insidious messaging has harmed MLM for years. It is an industry that, unfortunately, is known for serial disingenuousness, absurd misrepresentations, gross distortions, impossible constructions and outright lies.
How Other Industry Messages Could Hurt Herbalife
On March 11, a day before Herbalife announced the FTC probe, members of the TelexFree MLM were taking to the web and planting the seed that President Obama had TelexFree’s back. The assertions are either a gross misunderstanding of the JOBS Act and the concept of raising startup capital through crowdfunding or a typical MLM lie to provide extra cover for the scheme. (See Google Translation from Portuguese to English here. See original here.)
For starters, TelexFree, which appears to have gathered $1 billion or more in less than two years, wants the public to believe it is not selling securities, despite affiliate claims the “program” delivers “passive” income. Moreover, it is not raising capital under the JOBS Act, which is a work-in-progress. In October 2013, the SEC formally proposed that a “company would be able to raise a maximum aggregate amount of $1 million through crowdfunding offerings in a 12-month period.”
The sum of $1 million is less than the sum TelexFree pitchman and former SEC defendant Sann Rodrigues says he’s earned from TelexFree since Feb. 18, 2012.
Rodrigues started pitching TelexFree before the JOBS Act even became law and before the SEC even promulgated rules. So, strike the JOBS Act claim.
Beyond that, TelexFree is under investigation by the Securities Division in its home state of Massachusetts. There’s also at least one probe in Africa, specifically in Rwanda, where a genocide occurred in the 1990s. Meanwhile, in South America, Brazilian prosecutors have called TelexFree a pyramid scheme. Police in Europe have issued warnings about TelexFree, amid concerns that the “opportunity” is targeting the Madeiran community.
At a minimum, TelexFree is at least as clueless as Zeek, home of the “exciting” CID. As noted above, TelexFree pitchman Sann Rodrigues is a former defendant in an SEC pyramid-scheme and affinity-fraud case. If that weren’t enough, TelexFree executives and reps apparently have access to a “private jet” that recently made a flight between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
If there’s a surefire way to destroy the public’s confidence in the emerging JOBS Act, it’s for a bunch of MLMers to go around planting the seed that the President of the United States has authorized TelexFree as a crowdfunding company — and to water that seed by talking about “private jets” that can be flown by the TelexFree MLM into Haiti to line up struggling Haitians to sell credit repair and financial advice to struggling Americans.
Yes, we know: It’s altogether too much to believe. But the bitter reality for MLM — and therefore for Herbalife — is that it’s actually happening.
TelexFree says it’s in the communications business, and is expanding from VOIP into cell phones and, highly curiously, credit repair and financial advice. This is an MLM quagmire if ever there was one, especially since American MLMers say sums from $289 to $15,125 sent to TelexFree virtually triple or quadruple in a year.
If MLMers ever wonder why the trade has so many critics, they need look no further than TelexFree or Zeek before it.
With Zeek smoldering in the ashes of Ponzi/pyramid history and TelexFree serving up a current symphony of the bizarre, the MLM trade now also is confronting yet-another epic PR disaster — namely, a “program” known as WCM777 that, like TelexFree, is under investigation in multiple countries.
Like TelexFree and Zeek, WCM777 also promoted preposterous returns.
But that might be just the beginning of WCM777’s problems. Among other things, WCM777 has claimed it is “Launching The Way TV to transform nations & Joseph Global institute to train a group of Josephs to bless the world.”
But the “Joseph Global Institute” and a companion enterprise that trades on the name of Harvard appear to be shams. And The Way TV launched long ago through an entity known as Media for Christ, which became the center of an international firestorm over a production known as “Innocence of Muslims.”
Particularly disconcerting now are reports that tens of millions of dollars may have gone missing from the WCM777 coffers. In 2013, the SEC alleged that a “program” known as Profitable Sunrise may have gathered tens of millions of dollars before disappearing.
Don’t kid yourself: There is no doubt that the circumstances surrounding some MLM “programs” are affecting economic security and contributing to concerns about national security.
MLM Minefields
As noted above, precisely why the FTC is investigating Herbalife is unclear. The Zeek case initiated by the SEC, however, could supply a clue or even a specific reason for the U.S. government to be concerned about Herbalife. A look at the list of alleged “winners” by the court-appointed receiver in the Zeek case suggests that Zeek became popular in immigrant communities, which may signal MLM affinity fraud on top of Ponzi and pyramid fraud.
It also may signal immigrant-on-immigrant crime under the MLM umbrella.
This information is preliminary, meaning a more thorough analysis is needed. But it at least suggests that some MLMers are proceeding from fraud scheme to fraud scheme and either laying waste to immigrant communities in the United States or setting the stage for immigrant populations to become immersed in litigation and MLM scams.
The surname name of “Johnson,” for instance, is one of longstanding in America. So, it can be expected that a major fraud scheme with 1 million or so members such as Zeek would pull in a number of people with that last name. There are about 45 people with that name on the Zeek list.
At the same time, there are about 60 people on the list with the Asian name of “Li.” So, “Li” has significantly more appearances than “Johnson.”
And what about “Smith,” another traditional American name? Well, there are about 52 “Smiths” on the list. Contrast that with the names “Nguyen” (about 146) and “Chen” (about 137).
There also are many Latino/Hispanic names on the Zeek list. Mind you, this is the list of alleged Zeek winners, not losers. The list of losers — perhaps as many as 800,000 — is not publicly available. (Because it is believed that many Zeek members had multiple user IDs, the number of user IDs may exceed the actual number of losers. But even if the 800,000 figure only incorporates user IDs, it remains troubling. The early data on the winners’ names suggest that immigrants could have been targeted as marks by other immigrants and also by long-established American MLMers.)
Latino groups have voiced concerns about Herbalife targeting vulnerable populations. With Zeek data suggesting such targeting occurred within Zeek, the MLM trade have may to confront some tough questions: Is a mature American MLM market being shored up by a disproportionate share of recent or relatively recent immigrants? And are American MLM companies prospecting in new lands creating losing propositions for the native inhabitants of those lands?
TelexFree certainly has targeted Portuguese and Spanish speaking populations — in the United States, Brazil and elsewhere. So has WCM777, which also has targeted Asians and Asian-Americans.
People are free to criticize Bill Ackman’s assertions that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme that is targeting vulnerable populations. But if MLMers who criticize Ackman expect to be taken seriously, they’d better be able to explain what appears to have happened at Zeek and what appears to be occurring now with both TelexFree and WCM777.
U.S. MLMers of any stripe — from longstanding citizens and naturalized ones to individuals hoping one day to proudly call themselves Americans — need to say no loudly to “programs” such as Zeek, TelexFree and WCM777.
And at a minimum, Herbalife needs to stop selling a message of “get rich quick” or turning a blind eye to it and stop trying to explain away its burn rate as the byproduct of affiliates who didn’t work hard enough to realize the dream.
Herbalife cannot be blamed for Zeek, but the burn rate may explain how Zeek and similar schemes rise to cherry-pick traditional MLMers and their recruits who have made little or no money with companies such as Herbalife.
No matter what the FTC has on its mind, any assertion by Herbalife that its current program is exemplary will be the strongest evidence of all that it, too, resides in MLM La-La Land. That would be a tragedy, given that Herbalife is viewed in the MLM community as a beacon of freedom.
Carefully checking and protecting before investing is part of the theme behind Fraud Prevention Month in Alberta, the Alberta Securities Commission said today.
As part of its initiative, ASC rolled out a noontime “free lunch” in Calgary. The agency said it used the Mighty Skillet food truck at City Hall “to offer Calgarians a free sandwich and encourage them to make use of the ASC’s online resources.
The idea, ASC says, was to drive home the point that “No lunch is free – including today’s.”
As another key part of the initiative, Alberta created Checkfirst.ca, a site that includes a “quiz to educate Albertans about the risk for investment fraud,” ASC said.
“One in three Albertans report being approached with a possible fraudulent investment,” ASC said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This statement from the Alabama Securities Commission is dated March 12, 2014. The PP Blog has applied in-house formatting elements to the statement. Other than that, the statement is verbatim.
INVESTOR ALERT – Understanding high-risk investments What you don’t know CAN hurt you!
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA (March 12, 2014) As our state’s and the country’s economy slowly improves, Alabama citizens could still be at risk for losing their hard-earned money to high-risk investment products that guarantee or promote unrealistically high rates of return with little or no exposure to loss. The Alabama Securities Commission (ASC) receives numerous inquiries about exotic-sounding, high-yield investment “opportunities” that, in many cases, are revealed to be unregistered investments touted by unlicensed individuals who employ vague or unrealistic trading strategies.
And, with the rapid evolution and marketing potential of social media and the internet, investors may be lured by the illusion that most such opportunities are legitimate. The ASC alerts Alabama investors about two current, high-profile, high-risk investment opportunities that have the potential to seriously compromise their personal financial assets if not investigated thoroughly and carefully.
BITCOIN issues
Virtual or digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, have recently become popular as an alternative to cash or traditional lines of credit. Bitcoin and numerous other “crypto-currencies,” may be traded on online exchanges for conventional currencies, including the U.S. dollar, or used to purchase goods and services, usually online.
Unlike traditional currencies, virtual currencies’ value can fluctuate radically according to user demand. In some cases, investors who trade on virtual currency exchanges have experienced trouble redeeming the digital currency or in cashing-out. The potential for fraudsters to use crypto-currencies to perpetrate financial scams is enticing due to the currencies not being issued by a governmental authority or financial institution, and having less regulatory oversight than transactions in conventional currencies.
“The increasing prevalence of Bitcoin and other digital currencies has provided a fertile environment for financial criminals to make money on the increasing popularity and acceptance of these products,” said ASC Director, Joseph Borg. “The value of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies can be highly volatile and investors should be aware that investments that incorporate ambiguous money systems can lead to very real risks, including the potential to lose one’s money!”
Iraqi Dinar issues
The Iraqi dinar “investment opportunity” is a scam that has existed for more than a decade and has regained some of its former popularity. As with many foreign exchange currency trading frauds, the dinar investment opportunity is often pitched as a “can’t miss” method by which the interested investor can profit from a severely undervalued Iraqi currency that is “certain” to appreciate in value in just a short time.
Fraudsters engaging in the dinar scam promise that extravagant profits can be realized if the investor buys the dinar at today’s values, typically 1,000 or more dinars to one U.S. dollar. The investor then exchanges the dinars for dollars at a later date, once the dinar exchange rate has improved.
ASC Director Borg cautions that foreign exchange currency trading is very risky for main street investors.
“Often, promoters of foreign exchange currency trading schemes, such as those involving the Iraqi dinar, lure investors with the promise of “control” over a large amount of foreign currency with a relatively small initial outlay. Fraudsters often predict inevitable increases in the currencies’ value, which will supposedly lead to huge returns over a short time, with little or no downside risk.”
According to Borg, investors should not be fooled by the promise of easy money.
“As with any traded commodity, investing in foreign currencies can be extremely risky and generally unsuitable for all but the most seasoned investors who can afford the high risk.”
Commodity trading platforms are subject to federal and state regulations; potential investors may contact the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) at www.cftc.gov for more information; check registration status and disciplinary history of commodities at the National Futures Association (http://www.nfa.futures.org/) or call NFA at 800-676-4632; and contact the ASC at www.asc.alabama.gov or call 1-800-222-1253 to determine if an investment opportunity and the person making the office are properly registered.
What you can do
The Alabama Securities Commission encourages all Alabama citizens to learn and incorporate
sound and proven investment techniques as a means to grow and safeguard their personal financial assets:
Check and verify. Before you buy, always independently verify with state and federal regulators who you are dealing with and whether the seller of the investment opportunity and the product is properly registered.
Exercise skepticism. Be aware that many individuals who offer strategies for getting rich quickly make their money on the sales of their books or seminars. Ask yourself why they’re sharing their secrets with you instead of keeping it to themselves.
Beware of guarantees. Be suspect of anyone who promises or guarantees an investment will perform a
predictable way or will generate consistent or unreasonable returns.
Be suspect of complex strategies. Avoid any investment opportunity that touts complex or exotic-sounding techniques to achieve unusual success. Investors should be able to clearly discern what kind of opportunity is being offered; who is offering it; how does it make money; what is required to get your money out of the investment; and what are the risks.
Avoid pushy salespeople and claims of urgency. No reputable financial professional should pressure you or insist that you “act now” when considering an investment opportunity. If it is such a good deal today, it will be a good deal tomorrow—after you have had a chance to check and verify.
Contact the ASC with inquiries concerning securities broker-dealers, agents, investment advisers, investment adviser representatives, financial planners, registration status of securities or debt management programs, to report suspected fraud or to obtain consumer information. The ASC provides free investor education and fraud prevention materials in print, on our website and through educational presentations upon request.
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“Far from verifying that purchasers of the company’s investments are accredited, [Balanced Energy President Kirk] Johnson, according to the order, said ‘we don’t do any verification’ and ‘we’re not the paperwork police,’” — Texas State Securities Board, March 11, 2014
Balanced Energy LLC, an oil-and-gas firm based in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburb of Southlake, is not an HYIP in the classic sense of the term. But the company’s experience could presage danger to HYIP scammers who seek to hitch their wagons to Bitcoin and cherry-pick Bitcoin users.
In an emergency cease-and-desist order dated March 10, the Texas State Securities Board has accused Balanced Energy of accepting payment through Bitcoin without disclosing the risk of using the digital currency.
“Balanced Energy will convert some or all of the payments it receives through Bitcoin to traditional currency and use the money to pay for its business operations,” the board said, referring to its order.
“Balanced Energy has failed to disclose to investors the risks in using Bitcoin to purchase working interests in wells, according to the order,” the board continued. “The price of digital currency is subject to extreme swings, which could affect the amount of money available for business operations.”
Regulators conceivably could attack HYIPs accepting Bitcoin under the same theory, adding another layer of risk to the already insidious “opportunities.”
Balanced Energy also sold unregistered securities and solicited unaccredited investors, the board alleged.
Again the experience of Balanced Energy could signal bad news for HYIP scammers.
“Far from verifying that purchasers of the company’s investments are accredited, [Balanced Energy President Kirk] Johnson, according to the order, said ‘we don’t do any verification’ and ‘we’re not the paperwork police,’” the board alleged.
From a statement by the board (italics added):
The working interests are not registered with the State Securities Board and no permit has been granted for their sale in Texas. Rule 506 of Regulation D under the federal Securities Act of 1933 does allow an issuer to solicit and sell certain securities without first complying with state registration requires, but only to accredited investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission defines individual accredited investors as persons whose net worth is at least $1 million – excluding their primary residence – or who make at least $200,000 a year.
The issuer of a such an offering must also take reasonable steps to verify an investor’s accredited status.
HYIP schemes — always a den of criminality — increasingly may be trying to tie themselves to Bitcoin and appear even to be launching Bitcoin-themed reload scams targeting Bitcoin users who lost money at Mt. Gox. Soliciting investors regardless of their financial standing is one of the oldest tricks in the HYIP scammer’s playbook.
Consumers could be left holding the bag if a scheme goes south.
“Although digital currencies such as Bitcoin are often touted as a sophisticated, online alternative to traditional currencies, investors should realize these currencies are not tangible, they are not issued by a government, and are not currently subject to traditional regulation or monetary policy,” Texas Securities Commissioner John Morgan said last month.
Here are just two of the points made in an Investor Warning by the Texas board last month (italics added)
Digital currencies may provide promoters with a significant degree of anonymity. Unscrupulous promoters may be able to exploit the anonymous nature of certain digital currencies to conceal their true identity and assist in the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of a fraudulent investment offering.
Securities offerings that incorporate digital currencies may be highly dependent upon their growth and acceptance in retail and commercial marketplaces. Also, any change in consumer confidence, user demographic or governmental regulation, or the introduction of new and competing forms of digital currencies, may negatively affect the liquidity or value of such securities offerings.
Applied to the HYIP sphere, the message may be that you can get in with Bitcoin — but you might not be able to get out.
And a scammer, of course, could simply relieve you of your Bitcoins by plying you with offers of dazzling returns — and then simply hightail it to the next scam to do it all over again.
