Telexfree

Telexfree (stylized as TelexFREE), a trade name owned by Telexfree Inc., was a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme disguised as an internet phone service company. Prosecutors have described it as the largest fraud of all time in terms of the number of people affected - more than 1 million, with victims in various countries. The brand became best known for its operations in Brazil held by Ympactus Comercial Ltda after it was involved in an ongoing investigation and trial for operating a Ponzi scheme, and later for having its operations suspended in the US by SEC under the charges of operating a multibillion-dollar Ponzi and pyramid scheme. 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. 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 fell under investigation by Brazilian authorities in January 2013, and fell under...