UPDATED 11:13 A.M. EDT U.S.A. Katia Helia Wanzeler, the wife of alleged TelexFree fugitive Carlos Wanzeler, remains in federal custody, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Katia, 49, is listed as an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal facility situated in the largest (by population) of New York City’s five boroughs. She is expected to be moved to Massachusetts to make an appearance before a grand jury investigating TelexFree, an alleged pyramid- and Ponzi scheme that gathered $1.2 billion.
Details of the move are unclear. Katia, a resident of Northborough, Mass., was arrested as a material witness last week at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, after “someone in Brazil” allegedly purchased her a one-way ticket to fly there. Her husband allegedly flew to Brazil on April 17, after ducking into Canada late on the evening of April 15. TelexFree’s offices in Marlborough, Mass., were raided at approximately 2 p.m. on that date.
Records in Worcester, Mass., show that the former Katia Helia Barbosa wed Carlos Nataniel Wanzeler on June 20, 1992. If Carlos Wanzeler remains in Brazil, it means he does so as the couple’s 22nd wedding anniversary approaches and his wife is being detained by U.S. authorities.
It also means that he remains in Brazil while James Merrill, his TelexFree business partner, remains in a U.S. jail. Merrill was arrested in Worcester on May 9 on a charge of wire-fraud conspiracy. Both Merrill and Wanzeler also face civil actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Massachusetts Securities Division, the state-level regulator. In addition, they face at least two prospective class-action lawsuits, including one that alleges violations of the federal racketeering (RICO) statute.
At a TelexFree confab in Spain earlier this year, Merrill spoke of Carlos Wanzeler in glowing terms, calling him one of “the greatest leaders” he’d ever met. He said the same thing about Carlos Costa, a business partner and TelexFree figure in Brazil.
Whether Merrill continues to hold Carlos Wanzeler and Carlos Costa in high regard is unclear.
TelexFree appears to have had at least one video personality with the surname of Barbosa: Helio Barbosa. Whether he is related to Katia Helia (née Barbosa) Wanzeler was not immediately clear. At least one YouTube video in Portuguese shows Helio Barbosa with Carlos Wanzeler. The video appears to have been shot at a TelexFree event in Newport Beach, Calif., in July 2013.
A TelexFree report aired in recent hours on the Brazilian television show “Fantastico” suggested that TelexFree continued to operate in Brazil. A link to a print version of the report was posted by a reader of BehindMLM.com.