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.
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.
Sann Rodrigues is on the right in this TelexFree promo from 2014. Indicted TelexFree figures James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler are on the left.
UPDATED 12:55 P.M. EDT JUNE 24 U.S.A. Once alleged by a class-action plaintiff to be part of an international racketeering enterprise, TelexFree and IFreeX figure Sann Rodrigues, on May 3, 2015, allegedly told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston’s Logan International Airport that he was about to travel to Israel.
Rodrigues, charged civilly by the SEC with securities fraud 13 months earlier in a case that alleged TelexFree had targeted affinity populations, “stated that he was embarking on a trip to the holy land with a church group for a week visit,” according to a May 7, 2015, affidavit by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). HSI is an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The asserted church group was not identified in the affidavit. Also unclear is whether Rodrigues conducted business in Israel while there. What is clear is that Rodrigues had been conducting business in the United States for years. On at least one occasion, he allegedly failed to disclose to U.S. immigration officials that the SEC had brought a fraud action against him.
“Aliens” is a term under U.S. immigration law to describe foreign nationals. Rodrigues is a citizen of Brazil. Under U.S. law, aliens who’ve engaged in acts of terrorism, narcotics trafficking or seek to engage in “commercial vice” are ineligible to enter or reside in the United States, according to the affidavit.
Commercial vice typically covers crimes such as prostitution, but immigration law also addresses a “serious criminal offense” such as “any felony.” If Rodrigues is charged criminally with any Ponzi-related or other felony, it almost certainly will further cloud his immigration status. Since Rodrigues was arrested last month in the United States on a charge of visa fraud, that status already is under the U.S. microscope.
Among the allegations against Rodrigues, whose full name is Sanderley Rodrigues De Vasconcelos, was that he had obtained his U.S. green card fraudulently, the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said on May 26. Green cards provide for lawful, permanent U.S. residency.
Prior to receiving his green card in 2011, Rodrigues, in 2009, lied to the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janiero to obtain a “B2” tourist visa with the stated purpose of visiting Las Vegas for eight days, according to the affidavit.
Upon his May 16 return to the United States from Israel, Rodrigues was arrested at a New Jersey airport (Newark International). He initially was jailed, but later was released on tight conditions.
But Rodrigues now has been detained again, BehindMLM.com reported today. The issue? Rodrigues, now an alleged visa fraudster in addition to being an alleged cross-border securities fraudster, reportedly has not met his bail conditions.
From BehindMLM (italics added):
[An] 8th of June hearing saw Rodrigues ordered to remain in the custody of the [U.S. Marshals Service], ‘until an SEC accounting or alternate funds are made available for bail‘.
Put another way, Rodrigues may not have enough clean money to comply with bail conditions.
U.S. federal court filings link Rodrigues to the alleged $1.8 billion TelexFree cross-border pyramid- and Ponzi scheme broken up by HSI and the SEC last year and to a 2006 pyramid scheme known as Universo Fone Club. Massachusetts investigators, meanwhile, have linked him to the IFreeX scheme.
Court records suggest Rodrigues has been in the United States at least on and off since at least 2003. And, according to the records, Rodrigues claimed in the 2009 B2 U.S. visa application for the trip to Las Vegas that he previously had traveled to Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The TelexFree huckster allegedly failed to disclose that he’d also traveled to the United States, had lived in the United States for years and was deposed in the United States by the SEC in the 2006 Universo Fone Club case.
In fact, according to court filings, Rodrigues claimed in 2009 never to have been in the United States — this allegedly despite the SEC deposition and his own claim that he had lived in the United States between 2003 and 2006.
Cross-Border Scamming MLM-Style
Precisely how long Rodrigues has been involved in MLM/network marketing is unclear. The SEC says it’s been since at least 2006, potentially meaning the huckster who reaches across borders via the Internet and allegedly claims to be a world traveler has been scamming recruits for at least nine years.
While pitching prospects, Rodrigues publicly claimed he hauled at least $3 million out of TelexFree. The SEC said that the Universo Fone Club enterprise gathered more than $3 million. (See June 2007 story in Forbes.)
Rodrigues was among TelexFree’s purported honorees at the Madrid confab. Whether he had a large TelexFree organization in Spain remains an open question. It has been reported that 50,000 Spaniards had become involved in the “program.”
Affinity fraud in the form of schemes targeted at people who have something in common — from common nationality and common religion to common financial problems and common political beliefs — is a growing menace. The Internet in large part drives the schemes across national borders. But cross-border travel also plays a role. Pitchfests are performed in grand hotels and in budget properties. Ships at sea also have been used.
If the visa and securities charges against Rodrigues are proven, it will mean that you can add immigration fraud to the mix of ways modern network marketers are duping the public.
UPDATED 3:19 P.M. EDT U.S.A. TelexFree and IFreeX MLM promoter Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos (Sann Rodrigues) won’t be putting the pedal to the metal of his Lamborghini anytime soon — unless he wants to risk going back to jail.
That’s because U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven C. Mannion of the District of New Jersey issued an order May 21 for Rodrigues to surrender his driver’s license as one of the conditions for his release on a charge of immigration fraud. There are other tight conditions, including home confinement, electronic monitoring, secured bond and passport surrender.
And if any doubts remained that U.S. authorities were unaware of the TelexFree-related allegations of securities fraud against Rodrigues in Massachusetts federal court when he was busted in New Jersey earlier his month on the immigration charge, those doubts have been put to rest.
That’s because Mannion specifically referenced the TelexFree case. Indeed, the New Jersey judge informed Rodrigues that he’d deem it “evidence of the defendant preparing to flee” if the Massachusetts court determined the Brazil native had “moved assets” after the immigration bust and violated an injunction flowing from the SEC’s civil case against Rodrigues and seven others filed in April 2014.
Such gamesmanship would be treated as a violation of his bail conditions in New Jersey, Mannion warned.
Mannion also ordered Rodrigues to obtain “[m]ental heath testing/treatment” at the direction of pretrial services. No reason was cited.
The SEC alleged last year that Rodrigues had claimed on YouTube that “God” made MLM and “binary” and that Rodrigues had claimed he’s “never going to stop this.”
In 2006, Rodrigues was named an SEC defendant in a complaint that charged he operated a pyramid scheme known as Universo Fone Club that involved phone cards. TelexFree, which surfaced about six years later, purportedly sold VOIP services.
Rodrigues, according to court filings, informed Mannion that he owned two cars — one of them a 2007 Lamborghini of “unknown” value used for the purposes of “Business.” The other car, said to be worth $60,000, was not described.
A “Sann Rodrigues” YouTube account shows Rodrigues posing with three flashy rides, including a Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a Mercedes-Benz.
Meanwhile, Rodrigues owns two “unencumbered” homes — one worth $400,000, the other $175,000 — and currently makes $80,000 a year, according to court filings.
As the PP Blog reported on May 25, the IFreeX site went offline sometime after Rodrigues was arrested on the immigration charge. The reason why remains unclear.
One thing that is clear is that Mannion also ordered Rodrigues not to break any federal, state or local laws while he was out on bail.
The state of Massachusetts — the U.S. base of TelexFree — put out an IFreeX warning last year.
TelexFree and IFreeX promoter Sann Rodrigues has been released on “conditions,” including “the surrender of his passport and the passports belonging to his family members, a $200,000 secured bond, 24-hour electronic monitoring, and home confinement.”
A U.S. Magistrate Judge in the District of New Jersey imposed the conditions on Rodrigues, according to a statement today by the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts. Here’s the headline of the release: “Pyramid Scheme Promoter Arrested on Visa Fraud Charges.”
At the same time, the release noted that Rodrigues had been charged by the SEC in 2006 with “owning and operating Universo Fone Club and defrauding investors of millions of dollars.” The SEC alleged that Universo Fone Club was a pyramid scheme.
Rodrigues, of Davenport, Fla., was arrested earlier this month at Newark International Airport on visa-fraud charges after returning from Israel, prosecutors said.
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.
TelexFree operated from Massachusetts. A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee has said TelexFree gathered on the order of $1.8 billion in about two years.
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.
