William Galvin

If you’ve been following TelexFree developments, you’ve probably heard about “Operation Orion,” the code name for the investigation that led to raids against TelexFree’s Ympactus arm last week by the Brazilian federal police. The Orion name was chosen, police said, because it fit splendidly within the context of a pyramid-scheme case. How so? The Pyramids […]

(UPDATED 11:30 A.M. EDT MAY 21 U.S.A. See Update at bottom of this brief, originally published May 20.) TelexFree figure James Merrill was unable to persuade a federal magistrate judge to free him, the PP Blog has learned. Judge David Hennessy declined Merrill’s bail application today, the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said moments […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (16th Update 12:27 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) “Wings Network,” an MLM “program” in part targeted at TelexFree participants, has been charged in Massachusetts with operating a pyramid scheme and selling unregistered securities as investment contracts as part of a securities-fraud scheme. Several individual promoters or alleged recipients of fraud-scheme proceeds were […]

3rd Update 12:58 P.M. EDT U.S.A. The office of Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin has issued a subpoena to Wings Network, the Boston Globe is reporting. From the Globe (italics added): “We attended one of their events,’’ Galvin said. “We had heard from some investors who, in light of TelexFree, had become concerned — and […]

(UPDATED 8:05 A.M. EDT U.S.A.) Alleged TelexFree promoter and securities fraudster Santiago De La Rosa has been ordered by the federal judge presiding over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Ponzi- and pyramid case to sell two BMWs and a Land Rover Range Rover “back to the dealership” and to “repatriate all funds located outside […]

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 5:56 P.M. EDT U.S.A.) The Massachusetts Securities Division (MSD) has published a complaint form for TelexFree investors. Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin, who oversees MSD, also has published a brochure titled, “Illegal Pyramid Schemes Disguised as Multi-level Marketing Businesses (MLMs).” Galvin’s investigators alleged on April 15 that TelexFree was a combined Ponzi- and […]

Effectively having been accused of rivaling Scott Rothstein’s epic Ponzi scheme, TelexFree issued a statement this afternoon that calls the government actions against it “precipitous and unnecessary.” Rothstein’s Florida-based Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2009. It gathered about $1.2 billion before toppling, and is one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. On Tuesday, Massachusetts […]

TelexFree — specifically the Ponzi- and pyramid complaint filed against it Tuesday by Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Galvin — was the top story yesterday in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s daily infrastructure report. DHS was formed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Galvin alleged that TelexFree had gathered more than $1.2 billion […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (19th Update 5:45 p.m. ET U.S.A.) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against the alleged TelexFree pyramid scheme and a federal judge has granted an asset freeze. TelexFree was a sham to mask an investment scheme known as “AdCentral” in which affiliates were told they could […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (11th update 3:03 p.m. EDT U.S.A.) The state of Massachusetts has alleged that TelexFree is a “massive” Ponzi- and pyramid scheme that gathered more than $1.2 billion and targeted the Brazilian community. In alleged dollar volume, TelexFree appears to be at approximately the same level of the epic Scott Rothstein […]

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 […]