The State Department of Narcotics Investigations (Denarc) asked the Justice to seize the assets of accountant João Muniz Leite on suspicion of laundering money from organized crime. The investigated and his wife won 55 times in federal lotteries in 2021 alone, according to investigations. On one occasion, he shared a R$ 16 million prize at Mega Sena with drug dealer Anselmo Becheli Santa Fausta, known as Cara Preta, considered one of the main drug suppliers of the Primeira Comando da Capital (PCC). Santa Fausta was killed in December last year.
The state prosecutor’s office agreed to the police’s request. Muniz was an accountant for former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), for whom he made income tax returns from 2013 to 2016. His current office, on Rua Cunha Gago, in Pinheiros, is at the same address as Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, son of the former president, maintains three companies: FFK Participações, BR4 Participações and G4 Entretenimento, according to data from the São Paulo Board of Trade.
There is no mention in the Denarc investigation of Lula and his son, other than the coincidence of addresses.
The R$16 million prize was divided into five parts. Muniz was left with two; Santa Fausta, with three. The Denarc police suspect that it was with this money, heated up through the premium paid by Caixa Econômica Federal, that Santa Fausta bought the transport company UBus in partnership with five members of the PCC and 18 of their family members. The company has a R$ 600 million contract with the City of São Paulo and operates 13 bus lines in the east side.
Values
According to Denarc’s investigations, the accountant’s wife – whose name was not revealed – won the lottery 49 times, totaling R$ 2.16 million in prizes. In many cases, she lost money in betting. Deputy Fernando Santiago discovered that she spent R$480,000 on one occasion to obtain a prize of R$330,000. On another occasion, she bet R$114 thousand and won R$62 thousand.
The accountant won R$ 34.1 million in six opportunities. In two of them, the prizes were R$ 16 million. In a third, he bet R$ 662 thousand and won R$ 425 thousand. The fourth time, he bet R$84,000 and received R$74,000. The suspicion is that the lottery prizes were used to heat up illicit money, hence why, in most cases, the bets were higher than the prizes obtained by the couple.
Muniz would provide services to Santa Fausta in opening companies with false names. According to the police, there are indications of money laundering with the prizes of different Caixa lotteries. Among the companies he would have opened would be Eduardo Participações Patrimoniais.
The case is in the 1st Court of Tax Crimes, Criminal Organization and Money Laundering in the Capital, which would decide whether or not to decree the blocking of the accountant’s assets. The court denied Muniz’s arrest warrant.
Rent
For more than a decade, Muniz has been the trusted accountant of Lula’s family. In December 2017, he even testified in the context of an open falsehood incident to determine whether the rent discharge receipts delivered by the former president’s defense to the Federal Court were cold.
At the time, the Federal Public Ministry maintained that Odebrecht financed the rent of an apartment next to Lula’s in a building in São Bernardo do Campo (SP). The property belonged to Glaucos da Costamarques, cousin of cattleman José Carlos Bumlai, close to PT, and a confessed defendant in Lava Jato. And, according to the investigation, it was also available to the former president.
Then judge of the case, Sergio Moro ruled out the falsity of the receipts. However, the Prosecutor’s Office stated that, even though they were not manufactured, the vouchers were cold. In other words, Lula had never paid for the rent on the apartment. After the decision that made the former Lava Jato judge suspect, the case had its evidence annulled and ended up being shelved.
mine map
After the lawsuit against the former president, Muniz returned to a private life. His relationship with his family, however, became closer. The movements were evident in November 2019, a month before Operação Mapa da Mina, the Lava Jato phase that investigated Oi’s million-dollar contracts with Lulinha’s companies.
That month, Lulinha broke up with Jonas Suassuna, a businessman who owned the Santa Bárbara farm in Atibaia. It was because of this farm that Lula was convicted for the second time in Lava Jato, in which case he also had his evidence invalidated.
In the same act in which Lulinha broke the partnership with Suassuna, registered with the São Paulo Board of Trade, the address of the BR4 Participações headquarters was transferred to Rua Cunha Gago, number 700, set 11. Two other Lulinha companies, G4 Entretenimento e Tecnologia, and FFK Participações, also moved to that address. Together, the three have capital of R$ 4.3 million.
The address is the same used by Muniz to host, since October 2017, his company selling computer equipment, CDigital Network Security. In the same building, in the Pinheiros district, but five floors above, the accountant has already registered five other companies.
The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo was at the counter’s address in Pinheiros on Wednesday, but was unable to locate Muniz or his defense. The company JML Assessoria Contábil operates at the address in rooms on the 1st and 6th floors, as recorded on a panel at the entrance to the building. But there is no record of any of Lulinha’s companies that are registered with the Board of Trade.
The report also sought Lula’s advice and his defense and that of his son. Lawyer Cristiano Zanin Martins, who defends Lula, said he did not know whether Muniz still provides services to the PT. Criminalist Fábio Tofic, who defends Lulinha, did not comment.
The defense of the Santa Fausta family and the other members of the PCC investigated by Denarc was also not located by the report.
Members of the faction were shareholders of a company
In the case of the PCC’s bus company, UPBus, the trafficker Anselmo Santa Fausta would have used the false name of Ubiratan Antonio da Cunha to make the deal. In addition to him, three members of the PCC’s leadership were among the company’s shareholders. She was targeted by Denarc on June 2. Police officers discovered that Santa Fausta had Silvio Luiz Ferreira, known as Cebola, as partners; Cláudio Marcos de Almeida, known as Django; and Décio Gouveia Luis, the Portuguese, all accused of composing the top of the faction.
Two other members of the PCC were identified as partners of UPBus: Alexandre Salles Brito, aka Xandi; and Anísio Amaral da Silva, known as Biu.
According to delegate Fernando Santiago, from the 4th Precinct of Denarc, the investigation began after the murder of Santa Fausta, in December 2021, in Tatuapé. He was with Antonio Corona Neto, the Bloodless, also murdered.
In the operation on June 2, Denarc fulfilled 62 search and seizure warrants. The police seized cell phones, computers, documents, two rifles, pistols, revolvers and a large amount of ammunition. The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.
Source: CNN Brasil
