Legislature tightens the siege against pyramids and ‘aliens’ – 10/08/2023 – Marcos de Vasconcellos

Guaranteed high earnings, no risk, available only to you and a few people. If you heard these words — and it wasn’t after rubbing a magic lamp in the desert — it’s time to change the conversation or the company. Soon, it may be time to call the police.

On the 3rd, the Senate’s Public Security Committee (CSP) approved a bill that provides for a penalty of up to eight years in prison for the crime of a financial pyramid. And the point that I find most interesting: the punishment also affects investors who, knowing about the fraud, recruit new participants.

The project still needs to go through other committees before going to the Chamber of Deputies and then for presidential approval, but it shows a Legislature that is more attentive to a serious problem, which hampers the discussion about investments.

The schemes are an old thing and the simple explanation is: they are businesses in which the generation of money depends more on the entry of new people into the pie than on the actual application of the money collected. There are more complex ways to do it, but this is the base of the pyramid (pardon the pun).

Traditionally, what we see is the attempt to punish the heads of the scheme, such as the famous Bernie Madoff, in the United States, or the “Pharaoh of Bitcoins”, Glaidson Acácio dos Santos, in Brazil. But the truth is that the heads depend on their investors’ marketing for the scam. And, until now, we have treated those who, many times, were also perpetrators as victims.

Look: I imagine that the vast majority of people who fall for pyramid scams are actually victims. But I know first-hand cases of people who knew they were involved in a scheme, but continued to recruit “friends” to avoid losing out. Friends in quotes, of course.

Bill 3,706 has been in progress since 2021, but the approval of the project by the commission comes just on the eve of the closure of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Financial Pyramids, scheduled for the 11th.

The focus of the group, established in June, changed over time. They tried to hang on him the fraud in the Americanas accounts and the chaos created with 123milhas. But the promise is that its final report will facilitate the investigation of crimes involving cryptocurrencies, airline miles and other digital assets. So be it.

Recently, the Tocantins Civil Police announced that they had arrested a pastor accused of setting up a pyramid scheme to take money from believers. The estimate is that there have been more than 50 thousand victims in five years.

The case involved religion, money and conspiracy theories. Some leaders said that ETs had invaded the Vatican and palaces in England to take gold, which would be distributed to those who helped in the project called “Nesara Gesara”, according to police.

The absurdity may seem obvious to those who read it, but greed speaks loudly, while education whispers. And common sense ends up being swept under the rug when the offer comes from people close to you.

A little help from the Legislature in cleaning up would be welcome, so that stories of scams disguised as investments, such as Fazenda Boi Gordo, Telexfree, Unick Forex, Ostriz Master and many others, become just memories of a time.

LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access five free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.