Tax auditor Ricardo Mansano de Moraes, the target of an operation due to suspicion related to ministers of the (Supreme Federal Court), was removed from a position in the head of Tax Credit and Credit Law Management, in Presidente Prudente (SP), where he worked in the secretariat of .
He was the target of the operation, determined by the minister, on suspicion of accessing the data of a former stepdaughter of the minister, daughter of lawyer Guiomar Feitosa.
The auditor acted as an occasional substitute in the body, a role that allowed him to take over the direction of the team during legal absences and regulatory impediments of the head. The dismissal, signed by the delegate at the Revenue unit in Presidente Prudente, was published in the Official Gazette of the Union this Thursday (19). When contacted, the Federal Revenue Service stated that it would not comment.
According to Sindifisco, the entity that represents tax auditors, the only unmotivated access — that is, unrelated to the auditor’s work — was to Gilmar’s stepdaughter’s data. The entity’s director, Marcelo Lettieri, states that this access generates an administrative punishment, but that they have no information about the crime of data leakage. Documents about the case are confidential.
“Our concern is that the process is confidential, but it discloses the names of the servers. We understand that, when there is public interest, you disclose the entire process, but unfortunately only the name was disclosed, being a generic accusation.”
In an interview with the website Metrópoles, the president of Unafisco (National Association of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue of Brazil) also cited Ricardo’s access to the data of Gilmar’s ex-wife’s daughter.
“It was a false positive. He accessed it, he shouldn’t have accessed it, but he went to see if a known person was a friend’s ex-wife, because they had the same surname, so much so that he went to look in 2008, because that was the period in which the couple were together. If it were due to the leak, he wouldn’t look in 2008, if it’s a case of 2026.”
In a note after the operation, Unafisco said it was concerned about the adoption of measures against the auditor and that “this is not the first time that, in the face of allegations of leaks, removal measures and restrictions are adopted before the technical conclusion of the facts”.
“Federal Revenue tax auditors cannot, once again, be turned into scapegoats in the midst of institutional crises or disputes that do not concern them. The instrumentalization of public servants to shift the focus of public debate compromises the credibility of institutions and weakens the Rule of Law.”
Alexandre de Moraes had already ordered the removal, for an indefinite period, of the targets of the investigation from exercising public functions.
On Tuesday (17), A carried out four search and seizure warrants in , and , in an investigation investigating possible leaks of Revenue data involving STF ministers and their relatives.
In addition to Ricardo Mansano, the targets of the operation were Luiz Antônio Martins Nunes (a server at Serpro, a state-owned data processing company, which was assigned to the tax authorities), Luciano Pery Santos Nascimento and Ruth Machado dos Santos.
Moraes’ determination was made based on a representation made by the (Attorney General’s Office).
According to the court, “several and multiple illicit accesses to the Brazilian Federal Revenue Secretariat system were found, followed by subsequent leaks of confidential information.”
The STF also says that there was “a possible improper leak of confidential data from ministers of the Federal Supreme Court, the Attorney General of the Republic and their family members, several and multiple illicit accesses to the system of the Federal Revenue Secretariat of Brazil were found, followed by a subsequent leak of confidential information”.
Ricardo Mansano lives with his wife in São José do Rio do Preto (440 km from the capital of São Paulo), in a luxury condominium. Documents, a notebook and a cell phone were seized at the property.
Mansano entered the public service in 1995 through a competitive examination. Last year, he joined the Tax Credit and Credit Law Management Team, an area of the body that manages the management of tax credits that taxpayers can receive from the Union.
