Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, Money Laundering, Massachusetts 2017

Brazilian national Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder approximately $20 million in proceeds from the TelexFree pyramid scheme.

Rocha pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering in federal court in Boston.

U.S. District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin scheduled sentencing for December 7, 2017. Rocha faces a possible sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater.

The TelexFree scheme, which was based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, caused billions of dollars in losses to nearly two million victims. In April 2014, agents executed a search warrant at the company's headquarters and found that one of the founders, Carlos Wanzeler, had fled to Brazil, leaving millions of dollars hidden in the greater Boston area.

In January 2017, Rocha, working as a courier for Wanzeler's representative in Brazil, flew from Brazil to New York City and met a cooperating witness in Hudson, Massachusetts, where he handed over a suitcase containing $2.2 million of Wanzeler's hidden TelexFree money.

After the meeting, agents followed Rocha to an apartment in Westborough, Massachusetts, where they arrested him and found approximately $20 million in cash hidden in a mattress box spring.

Rocha will also be subject to deportation proceedings. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew E. Lelling and Neil J. Gallagher Jr. of Weinreb's Economic Crimes Unit.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/brazilian-national-pleads-guilty-scheme-launder-20-million-proceeds-telexfree-fraud