One company’s lucrative pyramid scheme has come tumbling down. According to ABC News, Massachusetts law enforcement discovered a box spring lined with stacks of bills totaling $20 million. The money is believed to be the property of TelexFree, a purported “Internet phone services” business.
The investigation discovered that TelexFree landed in the center of a $1 billion pyramid scheme that accumulated wealth from 2012 to March 2014. They mandated unsuspecting customers to invest a fixed amount of money into the company in which they would be compensated — per the Department of Justice — “under a complex compensation structure, on a weekly basis so long as they posted ads to TelexFree’s VOIP service on the Internet.”
Photo of $20M seized in box spring following arrest of Brazilian national in scheme to launder proceeds of TelexFree https://t.co/ulmFXtI9mr pic.twitter.com/0MTHxjaVZL
— U.S. Attorney MA (@DMAnews1) January 23, 2017
Authorities pulled the base out of the pyramid scheme once they raided one suspect, Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha’s apartment this month. The 28-year-old is facing “one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.”
In an analysis of the company’s revenue, TelexFree garnered $1.02 billion four years ago, which mainly came from the pockets of customers.