A Marlborough telecommunications company says its name is being maligned following an action by the government of the African nation of Rwanda.
In a statement, TelexFREE said that, according to a published report in Rwanda Eye, a news medium in that country, a company with a similar name, P.L.I. TelexFree (Rwanda) Ltd., failed to pay taxes in that country of more than $6 million, has been channeling millions of dollars through Rwandan accounts, and is suspected of crimes ranging from tax evasion to money laundering. Subsequently, Rwanda Eye reported, the government banned all operations of P.L.I. TelexFree Rwanda.
A statement from TelexFREE said: “As far as we can tell, this has nothing to do with us other than the fact that somebody is making illegal use of our name. We have in the neighborhood of half a million customers worldwide, and 121 of them are in Rwanda. But we have no connection with P.L.I. Telexfree Rwanda Ltd. … That company allegedly has been in business for 14 years, whereas we just celebrated our second year in business. We’ve checked our records and find no evidence of the names of the persons associated with that company registered as either our customers or agents. Rwanda wasn’t on our radar until this report hit the Internet.”
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