ICE Boston announces sentencing of Brazilian National convicted in $20 million dollar international money laundering pyramid scheme

BOSTON – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Boston and the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts announced the sentencing in federal court Thursday of a Brazilian national on charges in a $20 million dollar money-laundering international pyramid scheme based in the Boston area.

HSI Acting Special Agent in Charge, Michael Shea, along with United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling, whose office prosecuted the case, announced that Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin to 33 months in prison and one year of supervised release. In October 2017, Rocha pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering.

“This investigation and successful prosecution, accomplished through a years-long team effort, highlights HSI’s continued emphasis to dismantle large scale money laundering organizations that utilize our financial institutions to defraud the American public.

After a search warrant executed in April 2014 at the headquarters of TelexFree Inc., a massive pyramid scheme based in Marlborough, Mass. that caused billions of dollars in losses to nearly two million victims worldwide, Carlos Wanzeler, one of the founders of the company, fled first to Canada and then to Brazil, his native country. In his haste to flee the U.S.,Wanzeler left millions of dollars hidden in the greater Boston area.

In 2015, an intermediary working on Wanzeler’s behalf contacted an associate for help transferring the money from the United States to Brazil. The associate, who later cooperated with federal authorities, arranged with Wanzeler’s representative in Brazil to launder cash through Hong Kong, convert it to Brazilian Reals, and then transfer it to Brazilian accounts.

In January 2017, Rocha, working as a courier for Wanzeler’s representative in Brazil, flew from Brazil to New York City. Rocha later met the cooperating witness in Hudson, Mass., where Rocha gave him a suitcase containing $2.2 million of Wanzeler’s hidden TelexFree money, intending that the cooperating witness help launder the cash out of the United States. Rocha was arrested after being followed to an apartment in Westborough, Mass., which was later searched and resulted in the seizure of approximately $20 million in cash found hidden in a mattress box spring.

Wanzeler and TelexFree co-founder James Merrill were indicted in July 2014 on charges that they operated TelexFree as a massive pyramid scheme. Merrill pleaded guilty to those charges and was sentenced in March 2017 to six years in prison. Wanzeler remains a fugitive.