What Nearly $20 Million Stashed Under A Mattress Looks Like.
A picture of bundles of notes packed into the bed frame was released by the US Attorney’s Office in Boston after federal agents found the money during a raid on an apartment in Westborough, Massachusetts
Investigators working on a $3bn global fraud case had followed a Brazilian man from New York to the address in Westborough.
28-year-old Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha has now been charged with one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.
Investigators were looking into TelexFree Inc, a company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, after it was alleged it was operating as a pyramid scheme.
Federal agents searched the headquarters of the company in 2014 and two of its founders were indicted.
One of them – Carlos Wanzeler – allegedly fled to Brazil, where prosecutors say he has remained.
The other, former chief executive James Merrill, pleaded guilty to the charges in October last year and will be sentenced next month.
