|
| homepage = (Telexfree.com ) }} Telexfree (stylized as TelexFREE) is a trade name owned by Telexfree Inc, that became best known for its operations in Brazil held by Ympactus Comercial Ltda after it was involved in an ongoing investigation and trial for allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=TelexFree under criminal investigation in Brazil )〕 and later for having its operations suspended in USA by SEC under the charges of operating a billion dollar Ponzi and Pyramid schemes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=US Securities and Exchange Commission )〕 Telexfree Inc. owns the rights to the ''Telexfree'' brand worldwide. The company was created by Carlos Roberto Costa, Carlos Nataniel Wanzeler and James Matthew Merrill after the change of its former corporate name Common Cents Communications Inc., which was incorporated in Massachusetts. According to the Company Registration Office of Massachusetts, Telexfree Inc. started to use this corporate name on February 15, 2012. Telexfree Inc. is a sister company of many other companies that operates TelexFree Marketing Plan, which belongs to the same founders and also share the same website. It includes a Brazilian company named "Ympactus Comercial Ltda", which was suspended in that country on June 13, 2013, by order of the court of Acre State.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Court Suspends Telexfree Operations )〕 Telexfree's Brazilian operations were regarded as one of the largest financial frauds in Brazil's history, according to Brazil's Ministry of Justice and the Federal Public Ministry.〔 The number of investors (labelled as "promoters" by Telexfree) has not yet been determined; by the end of August 2013, just after companies' suspension, Company Director Carlos Roberto Costa said that the company had 1,049,619 active promoters in Brazil. The company is currently under investigation by Brazilian authorities, which led the Court to freeze the company's and its owners' assets in Brazil and maintain, despite numerous appeals, the suspension of its operations in Brazil. Telexfree Brazil (Ympactus Comercial Ltda) denies the accusations, saying that it operates under the multi-level marketing structure, commercializing VoIP services. The final trial and judgement will likely be held in 2014, and the company assets will probably remain frozen before that, according to the Public Ministry of Acre State. Telexfree and BBOM, both companies suspected of operating Ponzi schemes and suspended by the Brazilian government, were featured among the top 10 most searched terms on Google during the year of 2013 in Brazil. Telexfree was ranked 2nd place, just after "BBB 13". On April 13, 2014 Telexfree LLC filed a petition for relief under the U.S. bankruptcy code.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.kccllc.net/TelexFree )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/15/secretary-galvin-charges-marlborough-phone-service-company-with-million-fraud/RSaSTWvJpnOjo8Ryh8stpN/story.html )〕 On April 2014, an investigation in the United States confirmed that Telexfree worked under a Ponzi scheme and handled more than $1 billion worldwide. The conclusion was made by SEC-MA, the agency that regulates the financial transactions in the company's home state of Massachusetts.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=https://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/current/scttelexfree/Administrative-Complaint-TelexFREE-4-15-14.pdf )〕〔〔〔(Research in the U.S. says Telexfree is a pyramid, and target were Brazilian )〕 SEC, in its Federal jurisdiction, also published a complaint against Telexfree INC, Telexfree LLC, the owners James Merril and Carlos Wanzeler, marketing director Steve Labriola, as well as telexfree promoters Joseph Craft, Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Santiago de la Rosa, Randy N. Crosby and Faith R. Sloan.〔〔 ==Telexfree case in Brazil== The Secretary for Economic Monitoring of the Brazilian Treasury Ministry (SEAE/MF) released the Memorandum 118/GABIN/SEAE/MF, on March 5, 2013, about Ponzi scheme activities carried on by Telexfree Brazilian subsidiary, "Ympactus Comercial Ltda".〔The memorandum triggered several investigations into the company's operations, leading Telexfree to hire Multi-level Marketing lawyer Gerald P. Nehra to review its marketing plan.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gerry Nehra gives "legal blessing" to Telexfree )〕 Nehra is a lawyer who is known in the U.S. for defending closed down Ponzi and pyramid schemes, such as Zeek Rewards,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=ZeekRewards Closing Down – The MLM Attorney Speaks Out! )〕 Ad Surf Daily,〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scam Study - Ad Surf Daily )〕 Universo Foneclub〔 and others. On June 13, 2013, Telexfree's operations in Brazil were suspended. The company released a note on its website explaining the court´s decision. The note says as follows (translated from the original Portuguese): In response to the seizure of the company's operations, Telexfree promoters protested throughout the country. On July 23, 2013, a group of protesting promoters in Brasilia blocked operations at Juscelino Kubitscheck International Airport. Marcus França, one of Telexfree's top promoters, stated, "we won't go back to the hoe, like the system wants us to", referring to the labor of weeding grass commonly performed by lower class Brazilian countrymen. Immediately after blocking operations, Telexfree tried to divert to other parent companies in Brazil, one of them named ''Worldxchange Intermediação de Negócios Ltda'', belongs to Telexfree founder and director Carlos Nataniel Wanzeler.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Telexfree diverted 88 milion after brazilian judge blocked payments )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Prosecutor urges end to Telexfree and members try to deflect R$ 101 million (PT/EN) )〕 In the last week of July, 2013, Telexfree decided to appeal again (regimental appeal) in Acre state, but Telexfree did not pay a U$20 fee in order to get the appeal accepted to be judged. The appeal was rejected by the judges of ''Tribunal de Justiça of Acre'' citing lack of payment and causing severe damage to the image of company lawyers before its promoters. Also in July 2013, a lawyer from Rondonopolis, Mato Grosso, won in court the right to have his invested money returned; according to the decision of the court ''3a Vara Cível'', which ordered a Telexfree Brazilian company representative to reimburse him the amount of R$101,500 (about . Later that month, the ninth appeal to reverse the ban on operations was dismissed, and weeks later the tenth appeal was also denied. In an attempt to unfreeze its assets and continue operations, Telexfree offered the court its own brand as a guarantee of payment that according to the company was worth 660 million Brazilian reals or approximately . The offer was refused and Telexfree remained suspended. Four months later, news reported rumours of logo plagiarism by the company (see section bellow).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Good Used Me to Create Telexfree says Carlos Costa )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://economia.ig.com.br/2013-11-22/governador-do-acre-declara-apoio-a-telexfree-suspeita-de-piramide-financeira.html )〕 In August 2013, Telexfree was fined by ANATEL, the Brazilian telecommunications regulatory agency, for lacking a license to provide VoIP services in the country. ANATEL released a public statement saying, "Offering Services of Internet Connections (SCI), which is a value-added service defined in Article 61 of the General Law of Telecommunications (LGT), regardless of which medium or technology used, such as dial-up connection, radio frequency, cable, among others, it must be associated with a telecommunications service properly regulated by ANATEL". After 13 attempts to overturn the injunction that shut down its operations in Brazil, Ympactus Comercial Ltda declared bankruptcy on September 20, 2013, when judicial recovery was requested in the court ''Vara de Recuperação Empresarial e Falência of Vitória''. This request focused on releasing the company's assets and paying its debtors, according to a bankruptcy plan presented to the Ministry of Justice. According to Carlos Roberto Costa, company director, in a video, the company will only pay to its investors the money that they have in their back-office and not the total money invested. The court immediately blocked this maneuver to protect company assets and guarantee the maximum "pro-rata" amount would be returned to its investors when the time came. In November 2013, as a last attempt to avoid auditing in its operations, Telexfree in Brazil tried to arrange a mediation with Brazilian legal authorities and return to business. The meeting was held in Rio Branco, Acre state capital, but the company and the Ministry of Justice did not reach an agreement.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Telexfree Mediation Proposal )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://g1.globo.com/ac/acre/noticia/2013/11/audiencia-termina-sem-acordo-entre-mp-e-telexfree-no-ac.html )〕 Following this, the company began undergoing an audit, done by BDO, and the findings will be sent to the Acre’s public prosecutors to analyze. After the mediation meeting ended, the Telexfree promoter Flávio Arraz was arrested, being accused of insulting the public prosecutor of the case, Alessandra Marques, calling her ''"Blond Devil"''. Two cases of suicide linked to the stoppage of the company have been reported in the Brazilian newspapers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tragic Suicide Death Telexfree Affiliates )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Telexfree」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|