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Tag: TelexFree soccer

  • REPORT: Flap Over TelexFree Soccer Club Deal Deepens; Botafogo’s Main Sponsor Reportedly Does Not Want Its Name Associated With Alleged Pyramid Scheme

    TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is keen on Botafogo. Source: YouTube video.
    TelexFree executive Carlos Costa is keen on Botafogo. Source: YouTube video.

    MLM’s HYIP wing appears to have triggered another PR disaster for the trade: Guaraviton, a longtime sponsor of the Botafogo soccer club in Rio de Janeiro, may be none too pleased with the club’s deal that brought on TelexFree as a No. 2 sponsor.

    TelexFree is under investigation in Brazil, amid allegations it is a pyramid scheme. There have been reports about death threats against a prosecutor and a judge.

    Guaraviton, a beverage-maker, is Botafogo’s main sponsor. The club’s deal with TelexFree was a “negative surprise” to Guaraviton, according to a story on Abril.com. Grupo Abril is a major media outlet in Brazil.

    Read the story in Portuguese at veja.abril.com.br.

    View the Google translation in English.

    Ponzi schemer Allen Stanford’s sponsorships caused embarrassment in the worlds of cricket and golf.

    Prior to the collapse of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008, members claimed ASD would have a car in auto racing’s Indy 500. (See PP Blog report from Feb. 22, 2009: Stanford/Bowdoin: ‘A Tapestry Of Believable Lies’

  • With Carlos Costa Gesticulating Wildly, TelexFree, An Alleged Pyramid Scheme, Says It’s Now A Soccer Benefactor

    TelexFree executive James Merrill shows off his Bota jersey. (Source: YouTube promo.)
    TelexFree executive James Merrill shows off his Botafogo jersey. (Source: YouTube promo.)

    What do you do when a Brazilian court freezes money and blocks new registrations for your “program” in that country, amid serious pyramid-scheme allegations?

    Well, if you’re TelexFree, you file losing appeal after losing appeal. And then, while continuing the pyramid battle, you change your logo so no one can get the idea you ripped it off from the 2010 World Badminton Championship in Paris.

    After that, you arrange for cameras to be rolling in the United States to capture the arrival of the limousine at the self-staged event (in Miami?) to announce your sponsorship of the Botafogo soccer club in Rio de Janeiro.

    Then, with great fanfare, you videotape the signing of the Botafogo contract — and make sure the cameras capture your top executives at the signing ceremony wearing a Botafogo jersey. (Among the executives are James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler.)

    Finally, you make sure that Carlos Costa — your most well-known executive — gets a chance to be shown evangelizing for TelexFree and gesticulating wildly on YouTube while wearing a Botafogo jersey with the new TelexFree logo affixed.

    (If you’re TelexFree, it apparently also helps if you use a split screen to show happy TelexFree affiliates wearing the old logo, a man holding what appears to be a check while the logo of the Best Western hotel chain and the old TelexFree logo appear in the background — and the arrival of a limo, of course.)