Firms deliver only pain, immigrants say

Gonsalves knew that Silvia could not afford even a modest affair, so she hired a company to ship a giant box filled with invitations, rhinestone-adorned shoes, and finally, Gonsalves’s own wedding dress, with the beaded top and flowing skirt.

Except the box never arrived.

As the wedding day approached in April, Gonsalves’s telephone calls to the Leicester delivery company, Manaim Express, grew more frantic until finally, the number was disconnected, the church wedding was cancelled, and Gonsalves was in tears. Nearly one year after Gonsalves packed it, the box is still missing and the company has disappeared.

“It makes me angry,’’ said Gonsalves, 39, who worked her way up from a struggling single mother to become a US citizen with a spacious home in Lowell. “I was supposed to go to her wedding. It was my wedding dress. I was devastated.’’

She is among scores of Massachusetts immigrants who say they paid a string of companies thousands of dollars to ship boxes to Brazil that were never delivered. Many companies have since closed, leaving the im migrants incensed and authorities in Massachusetts struggling to track down the firms and find out what happened.

The state attorney general’s office and police in Leicester and Marlborough have launched investigations into the companies. Stoughton police arrested a man last year after they discovered dozens of boxes intended for Brazil in a storage unit in town. Police said the boxes had been opened.

The situation has stirred a deep sense of betrayal among Brazilian immigrants, one of the largest immigrant groups in the state, who are following a long tradition of sending clothes, appliances, and other goods to relatives back home. Immigrants say the companies offered better prices than regular mail and catered to them by speaking their language, providing contracts in Portuguese, and picking up the boxes at their homes. Most of the workers were immigrants themselves.

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office would not confirm that she is investigating, but documents obtained by the Globe showed that her office has received about 150 complaints, mainly against Manaim Express; Adonai Moving and Transportation, a Framingham branch of a Georgia company; Express Moving International of Woburn; and Alexim Moving/ATC Cargo, which used to have an office in Massachusetts and is still operating in Florida.

Express Moving International’s phones were disconnected, but a founding owner, Sergio Oliveira, said he was duped by a fellow investor who allegedly ripped off him and 5,000 customers nationwide. He said he has not been contacted by authorities.

Luciano Campos, owner of Alexim Moving, said in an e-mail that the company was defrauded by a contractor in Brazil and lost money that has hindered their ability to deliver the goods. But he pledged to continue working to bring all boxes to their owners.

Manaim Express and Adonai Moving did not respond to e-mails, and the company phones are disconnected.

Carlos A.F. Da Silva, executive director of Brazilian Total Assistance, a Quincy nonprofit, urged the attorney general’s office to investigate. He said he has been helping immigrants file complaints to state authorities since last January, including at a recent meeting at an Everett church.

“It’s a major nightmare,’’ Da Silva said. “Some sent their belongings home because they are moving back to Brazil. Some are waiting for those boxes back in Brazil in an empty house.’’

In the dimly lighted church hall, dozens of cooks, baby-sitters, carpenters, and housecleaners clutched receipts as they glumly waited to fill out the paperwork.

Among them was Joao Oliveira, a 40-year-old carpenter who builds homes on Martha’s Vineyard. His receipts showed that he paid Manaim Express $4,510 in May to ship $10,000 worth of goods, including his carpenter’s tools, dining room set, dishwasher, and more. It was supposed to furnish a home he built by the beach in Brazil, with the money he made in America.

The boxes also contained gifts for a 14-year-old daughter he has not seen in years.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,’’ he said.

Zulamar Acordi, 42, of Melrose, said she sent four boxes costing $1,770 with Adonai one year ago, including almost all of her mother-in-law’s clothes because the woman planned to return to Brazil to see her grandchildren for the first time. Instead, her mother-in-law is still here, working to recover what she lost.

“Adonai always said the boxes were going to arrive,’’ Acordi said. “They said they were in the ports, there was a problem.’’

Police say the cases are challenging because it is unclear whether a crime is being committed in the United States or Brazil, where US police do not have jurisdiction.

Stoughton police last year arrested Joseph Edwards, the owner of Massachusetts Enterprise, after they uncovered boxes in a storage unit that should have been shipped to Brazil, according to Detective Arlindo Romeiro. Edwards could not be reached for comment, but his lawyer, William Gillespie, said he has pleaded not guilty.

In Marlborough, Police Chief Mark Leonard said he has received at least six complaints over the past couple of months about missing boxes. In Leicester, Police Chief James J. Hurley said two women filed complaints against Manaim Express in September, but the office is closed.

The attorney general’s office said customers should check companies’ references before hiring them and determine whether they have any pending complaints on file with the Better Business Bureau.

Immigrants say they still hope that their boxes will be found.

Oliveira said he heard a rumor that somebody found some boxes in New Jersey and wondered if they might be his. He has been so distracted that this week he cut himself on the job for the first time, sustaining 13 stitches.

He had planned to return home this month, but he doesn’t want to arrive empty-handed.

“Those boxes meant seven years of work,’’ he said. “I don’t know if I’m going home now or if I should stay and start over, and work some more.’’

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.