A hearing will be held in Boston next Tuesday to determine whether an Ashland man accused of running an international pyramid scheme can access $4 million of his money to help fund his defense.
TelexFREE co-owner James Merrill initially asked the U.S. District Court two weeks ago to release the funds, which he said are necessary to cover the exorbitant cost of defending himself against a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
But government prosecutors have resisted, telling the court Merrill has not shown the money didn’t come from TelexFREE, which several state and federal agencies have charged with being a pyramid scheme.
The hearing will be held before Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy at 9:30 a.m., according to court records.
 
TelexFREE was ordered to shut down last summer in Brazil, after a judge ruled it a “financial pyramid” scheme, according to news reports.
Galvin’s complaint says the company has raised over $1 billion worldwide, “often from honest earnings and savings accounts of Brazilian-Americans and other minorities.’’
The scheme works by constantly bringing in new money, the state alleged. For instance, participants are recruited to invest either $289 or $1,375, and receive a number of advertising kits in return. By posting ads on web sites

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Yesterday saw a hearing for TelexFree Trustee Stephen Darr’s request for permission to subpoena several companies associated with TelexFree. Darr had also requested permission to conduct depositions with individuals from said companies, with the court granting him permission to proceed.
Five such motions were filed by Darr, with three of them granted as proposed. Alvares and Marsal (financial consultants to TelexFree) objected only to having to share emails between the firm and its legal counsel.
Darr agreed to this on condition that he reserves the right to request the emails, if needed, at a later date. A & M consented on condition they retain the right to appeal any such requests.
At the time of publication, no order has been made public regarding Darr’s request to subpoena TelexFree’s law firm Greenberg Traurig, however news reports suggest permission was granted on all five subpoena requests.
Speaking to the Worcester Telegram about why he had to file the requests, Darr remarked
There are no employees left. There’s no insurance. There never was insurance.
I have no money to start up the business. I just don’t know if there ever was a business. I’m hampered by a lack of records.
Following a raid on TelexFree’s headquarters, HSI and FBI agents seized a host of TelexFree’s onsite

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