This Tuesday morning (17th), the Federal Police executed 11 search and seizure warrants in Rio and São Paulo against people and companies investigated for crimes of evasion of currency and money laundering.
According to the PF, the action called “Enterro dos Ossos” is an offshoot of “Operation Patron”, carried out in November 2019 to dismantle a criminal organization linked to money changer Dario Messer, known as “dollar money changer”.
The operation also had, among its targets, the former president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, who ruled the neighboring country from 2013 to 2018. The name — boss, in Portuguese — is a reference to the nickname given by the money changer to the Paraguayan politician.
At the time, investigations identified 20 million dollars that would have been hidden by Dario Messer, of which 17 million were placed in a bank in the Caribbean archipelago of the Bahamas and the rest divided between money changers, exchange houses, politicians and businessmen in Paraguay.
In Rio, the warrants are carried out in prime areas, such as in a luxury condominium in Barra da Tijuca, west of the capital, where, according to the PF, agents are looking for “elements that corroborate the practice of money laundering and currency evasion in tax havens.”
The warrants were issued by the 7th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro.
*With information from Gabriela Coelho
Source: CNN Brasil
