Regardless of efforts from the US, Brazil is doing its finest to make sure TelexFree co-founder Carlos Wanzeler escapes punishment.
Though he labored with accomplices, Carlos Costa in Brazil and James Merrill within the US, Wanzeler is the mastermind behind TelexFree.
TelexFree was a $3 billion Ponzi scheme shut down by US authorities again in 2014.
Wanzeler, who held twin Brazilian and US citizenship on the time, fled to Brazil earlier than he may very well be apprehended.
Wanzeler’s US partner-in-crime, James Merrill (proper with Wanzeler (L)), was arrested in 2014 and has already served a six-year jail sentence.
Wanzeler fleeing to Brazil sophisticated his prison proceedings, owing to Brazil’s coverage of not extraditing its personal residents.
Pending the end result of parallel prison proceedings in Brazil, it appeared Wanzeler would ceaselessly stay a fugitive needed by the US.
Unexpectedly, issues modified following a precedent set by the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court docket in 2017.
One other prison with twin US and Brazilian citizenship had been stripped of her Brazilian citizenship on the premise she gave up her Brazilian nationality when she was naturalized as a US citizen.
That prison who US authorities filed an extradition software for in 2013, had her Brazilian citizenship revoked and was subsequently extradited.
In February 2018, Carlos Wanzeler turned the second dual-national to be stripped of his Brazilian citizenship underneath the brand new regulation.
Two years of appeals later, Wanzeler was lastly arrested on a US warrant in February 2020. By September 2020, Brazilian authorities had confirmed Wanzeler was set to be extradited to the US.
All through Wanzeler’s extradition proceedings, the Brazilian prison circumstances in opposition to him and Carlos Costa continued within the background.
One of many Brazilian TelexFree prison circumstances lastly resulted within the arrest of Wanzeler and Costa in December 2019.
Sadly that didn’t stick and inside a couple of days Wanzeler and Costa had been launched. The February 2020 execution of the US arrest warrant was truly Wanzeler’s re-arrest.
Naturally Wanzeler appealed his US warrant arrest. The enchantment was granted in March 2020 on the premise Wanzeler had reapplied for Brazilian citizenship.
Wanzeler remained in jail however the enchantment resolution as soon as once more put the brakes on his US extradition.
In Might 2020, Wanzeler and Costa had been convicted in the identical case that led to their December 2019 arrest.
On costs associated to operating an “unregistered fraudulent banking establishment”, Wanzeler and Costa had been every sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in jail.
Wanzeler and Costa each appealed their convictions. In the meantime, underneath enchantment or not, Wanzeler’s Brazilian sentence was one other roadblock to his US extradition.
Following a petition to then Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Wanzeler was launched from jail (the place he was nonetheless being held on the US extradition warrant) in August 2021.
Bolsonaro ordered Wanzeler’s launch on the premise his “extradition can solely be carried out after the conclusion of prison proceedings”.
Bolsonaro was discovered to have abused his energy in workplace and misused public media by Brazil’s highest electoral court docket in 2023. He’s barred from operating for workplace in Brazil till 2030.
Bolsonaro would go on to be indicted by Brazilian authorities on unrelated fraud costs earlier this 12 months.
In the meantime, 4 years later, Carlos Costa hasn’t served a day of his sentence. Costa’s and Wanzeler’s appeals in opposition to their TelexFree conviction stay pending.
And, as of April 2023, Carlos Wanzeler is now not underneath risk of extradition to the US.
In direction of the top of 2022, Brazilian authorities granted Wanzeler provisional Brazilian citizenship. That was sufficient for Wanzeler to provoke renunciation of his US citizenship.
Why Brazilian immigration officers granted Wanzeler, a fraudster convicted of operating a $3 billion Ponzi scheme and defendant in 11,000 civil lawsuits, 15 prison lawsuits and a single public civil motion, provisional citizenship is unclear.
Apparently the bar to clear for acquiring Brazilian citizenship is non-existent.
The present standing of Wanzeler’s US citizenship is unknown. I believe the play there may be to get Wanzeler’s US citizenship renounced, forcing Brazilian immigration officers to both grant Wanzeler citizenship or make him stateless (cue years of humanitarian appeals?).
As of August 2023, the end result of Wanzeler’s and Costa’s Brazilian conviction appeals stay pending.
Whereas Wanzeler’s fugitive standing within the US received’t ever expire, I believe he’ll by no means face any actual penalties in Brazil.
This month marks ten years and two months since TelexFree was shut down, for ever and ever to Brazilian proceedings. Be it a couple of days, one other 12 months or a couple of a long time, there isn’t any timeline for Wanzeler’s and Costa’s endless appeals.
Whereas there was some justice within the US, Brazilian TelexFree victims proceed to be betrayed and let down by their justice and immigration programs.