Feds Seize $17.5 Million Hidden in Mattress

Early to bed and early to rise might make you healthy, wealthy and wise, but stashing $17.5million in your mattress could land you in federal prison.At least, that's what will happen if those bills turn out to be ill-gotten proceeds racked up during an elaborate intercontinental pyramid scheme, according to the U.

S. attorney's office in Massachusetts. Federal prosecutors say they've charged a Brazilian man,Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, with money laundering.

Agents also seized over $17 million in cash hidden in a bed box spring at a Westborough, Mass. apartment, prosecutors said.According to a criminal court complaint, in April 2014, federal agents searched the headquarters of a business called TelexFree, Inc.

, in Marlborough, Mass. Later that day, Carlos Wanzeler, one of the founders of the company, allegedly fled to Brazil, his native country, where he has remained. Wanzeler and TelexFree co-founder James Merrill were indicted in July 2014 on charges that they operated TelexFree as a massive pyramid scheme, according to prosecutors.

Merrill pleaded guilty to those charges in October 2016 and is awaiting sentencing.The company had been nominally selling Internet phone service plans, but the operation turned into a $3 billion pyramid scheme with two million investors around the world, according to the Boston Globe. The scheme duped nearly a million people into losing money.

The complaint alleges that an intermediary working on Wanzelers behalf contacted an associate for help transferring millions of dollars of TelexFree money still hidden in the greater Boston area from the United States to Brazil. The associate, who subsequently became a cooperating witness for the government, allegedly arranged with Wanzelers nephew in Brazil to launder the cash through Hong Kong, convert it to Brazilian reals, and transfer it to Brazilian accounts.According to court documents, Rocha, acting as a courier for Wanzelers nephew, flew from Brazil to JFK Airport in New York City earlier this month.

Rocha then met the cooperating witness at a restaurant in Hudson, Mass., and allegedly gave him $2.2 million in a suitcase.

After the meeting, agents followed Rocha to an apartment complex in Westborough, Mass., and later arrested him. That night, federal agents searched an apartment at the Westborough complex and seized a massive stockpile of cash hidden in thebox spring.

Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein ruled that Rocha is a flight risk and should remain in jail until a trial which has not been scheduled, the Globe reported.He was close enough to Mr.

Wanzeler to be entrusted with millions of dollars, Dein said.