A May 10th Receivership Status Report reveals that 12,500 Traffic Monsoon victims have had their claims approved.
The total dollar amount of approved claims so far comes to $33,383,808.
On the chopping block are claims totaling $182.8 million. These claims are in dispute regarding filed proof backing the claims.
The Receiver has filed omnibus objections to these claims.
Many Claimants either did not respond to the objections or agreed with the objections and accepted that their Proofs of Claim should be disallowed or allowed in a reduced amount.
As a result of the omnibus objections and assuming the Court enters an order granting the No Response Claims Motion, 5,596 contested Proofs of Claims asserting over $90.6 million in claims will be reduced to allowed claims in the amount of $3,038,419.33.
As of May 10th, there are still 500 disputed proofs of claim, equating to “approximately $3.25 million in claims”.
Outside of those claims there remain “approximately 4,500 proofs of claim to be resolved. Among them is the $99 trillion dollar claim, believed to be a malicious filing.
Excluding the $99 Trillion Claim, the amount of these remaining Proofs of Claim total approximately $88.9 million.
The Receiver and her team are continuing to work these claims, filing objections as required.
With these objections made, the Receiver is hopeful that the amount of contested Proofs of Claim will be reduced to an amount that she can propose a viable Plan of Distribution.
Another point of note in the Receiver’s report pertains to claims made by “a set of investors located in Italy”,
who invested monies in Traffic Monsoon through Fabiano Santos and his entity, Advertising Corp.
According to the Receiver, Santos “is currently under criminal investigation in Italy for fraud”.
I tried to look into this myself but came up blank.
Despite being a net-winner, Santos
submitted several Proofs of Claim and, with the exception of one in the amount of $1,000,000, all of the Proofs of Claim have been objected to.
To ensure any accepted claims see distributions returned to actual victims,
the Receiver is working with an attorney in GT’s Milan office to evaluate the link between Santos, the Italian investors, and Traffic Monsoon.
As part of clawback efforts against payment processors, the Receiver ‘took actions to obtain additional funds from Allied Wallet’.
The Receiver maintains that the Receivership Estate has a claim against Allied Wallet in an amount of over $1.8 million as a result of fees and charges which Allied Wallet debited from Traffic Monsoon’s account both before and after the commencement of this case.
Allied Wallet contested the Receiver’s claims, arguing that the fees and charges were allowable under Traffic Monsoon’s contract and applicable law, and the parties were attempting to resolve their disputes consensually.
While that was playing out Allied Wallet collapsed and was put into liquidation.
The Receiver and her professionals have been working with the liquidator regarding the Receivership Estate’s claims against Allied Wallet and, during the Reporting Period, a formal claim was submitted to the liquidator which is being reviewed.
Payza is another payment processor Traffic Monsoon used. Payza has since been shut down by the DOJ.
Payza co-founders Firoz and Ferhan Patel were indicted on money laundering charges in 2018.
Last last year the Patel brothers were sentenced to three years and eighteen months in prison respectively.
The Receiver is working with the Department of Justice on issues related to the Payza and Traffic Monsoon.
With respect to Charles Scoville’s mystery flat sale;
The Receiver has determined that monies related to the Manchester Flat were deposited to Santander Bank in the United Kingdom, and she now has information about who received those funds.
The Receiver and her professionals are evaluating claims that might exist related to this matter taking into consideration who received the money and a cost-benefit analysis.
As of March 31st, 2021, the Traffic Monsoon Receiver is sitting on ‘$51.5 million which she would like to distribute to those with allowed claims against the Receivership Estate.’
The claims resolution process is well under way, and the Receiver will endeavor to resolve contested claim as quickly and efficiently as possible so that she can propose a Plan of Distribution to the Court for approval.
As of yet there is no timeline for victim distribution so please don’t ask.