He has apparently “eluded an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish authorities for months” but alleged pyramid fraudster Hernâni Gonçalves was finally run to ground on his native island of Madeira by PJ detectives.
The 34-year-old who promised investors “a millionaire lifestyle without having to work” is due to appear before Lisbon Appeal Court with a view to extradition, writes Correio da Manhã.
What is interesting is that it took “months” to hunt Gonçalves down. He was born in Madeira, he lived in Madeira and he ran his alleged pyramid scheme from Madeira.
A quick internet search would have shown Spanish authorities that he was running Empire MLM and other operations – understood to have swindled people from all over the world – quite openly only a year ago … from Madeira.
His frequent hotel events brought people flocking, as he promised to create “the largest millionaire-making factory in the history of multinational marketing” with dividends of 300% for anyone who invested in packages of products ranging from €500 to €3,000.
CM explains that “thousands of people bought into his schemes – many of them in Spain”.
His name has also been associated with businesses like Get Easy, Winner8Group and Winner8Sports. All of them schemes that were “born and died” as victims began to realise they were being conned, adds the paper.
Aside from the hotel events, business was conducted by ‘online conferences’ (very possibly from Madeira) – but it still took “months” for Spanish police to (almost) get their man.
