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The Public Ministry of São Paulo () ordered the Civil Police to investigate possible crimes in an operation to sell land belonging to the Jockey Club of São Vicente, on the coast of São Paulo, which ended up in the name of a financial center in the country.
O Metropolises revealed in September that a .
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The dispute over the area, where a unit of the Roldão wholesale chain is scheduled to open, ended up in court after club members suspected that the entity’s assets were being squandered by the current management.
The case came to light with the publication of a series of reports about funds, financial market structures used to shield the assets of large debtors or hide fortunes linked to criminal groups, politicians and businesspeople.
Called Jaffa, the fund is linked to the manager Reag, one of those affected by the , triggered in August by the MPSP. The case was opened by Jockey members against the club itself and challenges the sale, in 2022, of a 22 thousand m² plot of land. They request the unavailability of the entity’s assets, alleging a risk of asset dilapidation.
The partners’ suspicion is based both on the value of the transaction and on the context of negotiating the area — which is equivalent to about three football fields — and generated a request to investigate possible property crimes and falsehoods to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Prosecutor’s Office ordered the police to investigate possible illegal acts involving directors of the Jockey Clube de São Vicente.
According to the action, the land had a street value of R$14.6 million, but was sold for R$11.4 million to a company created just a month earlier. On the same day, this company would have resold the property to Reag for R$15 million.
The authors of the action maintain that the property would, in fact, be worth around R$100 million. Jockey, in turn, states that not even the market value estimated by the city hall reflects “market reality”.
For members who contest the operation, the club got rid of a highly valued asset in a “nebulous” negotiation, allowing private companies to explore the area without any return to the association.
On the land, the construction of a Roldão Atacadista unit is planned. The market does not appear in the process, but was notified extrajudicially by the authors of the action. In response, he informed that he only rents the space, registered in the name of the Jaffa fund.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (), the Jaffa fund, managed by Reag, invests 98% of its resources in Roldão itself. The same information appears in an independent audit attached to the CVM, which also points out insufficient data about the fund and, therefore, refrained from giving an opinion on the financial statements.
Jaffa has two other shareholders, both investment funds, in a layered structure that makes it difficult to identify the final beneficiary. The report also found that Jaffa receives contributions from another fund, Kombi Azul, a reference to the vehicle that symbolizes the beginning of the Roldão network, when the founders made deliveries in a Kombi.
What those involved say
The report consulted companies about the action that raises suspicions against the transactions. Roldão stated that he had not been notified about the investigation, but emphasized that he was not a party to the process and that he never owned the property.
“Roldão Atacadista is the tenant of the property from an exclusive and independent fund, unrelated to the company’s shareholder funds,” he declared. The company reiterates that there is no corporate or administrative link between the network’s activities and the fund that owns the land and highlights that “the management of Roldão Atacadista’s shareholder funds is carried out by Reag, in accordance with the criteria of legislation and the CVM”.
The Jockey informed the Metropolises who was unaware of the action brought by the partners and defended the negotiation as “absolutely legitimate”, previously approved by a broad panel. According to the club, dissident members were trying to “cast shadows” on a regular operation. The entity also states that its court certificates, discrediting due to high debts, would have restricted the number of interested parties. He added that the following transactions took the property to a real estate fund linked to Roldão, whose reputation, he says, is “sound and austere”.
After being targeted by Carbono Oculto, Reag stated in a statement that it does not participate in asset hiding or money laundering schemes and that it has never had any relationship with criminal organizations, including the PCC. The manager claims to act in accordance with financial market standards and emphasizes that several funds mentioned in the operation were never under its management. Regarding the vehicles for which he provided services, he says that his actions were always “diligent and diligent” and that these funds had already been renounced or liquidated months ago. The company claims to maintain solid governance and transparency practices.
The note concludes by saying that Reag will continue to act “ethically, diligently and transparently, without any tolerance for deviations”, collaborating with authorities and defending an honest and safe financial market for its clients and investors.
