For decades, the combating organized crime was focused on drug seizures, arrests of leaders and territorial occupation. Currently, however, Brazilian authorities have started to direct an increasing part of investigations to another point: the money.
In recent days, the topic has returned to the center of public debate after new high-profile cases involving known names nationally.
The influencer and lawyer Deolane Bezerra became investigated for allegedly acting in a structure of money laundering assigned to PCC (First Command of the Capital)a hypothesis that supported the request for preventive detention and precautionary measures in Operation Vernix.
Now the singer MC Ryan SP and other influencers were arrested in April this year, during the Federal Police’s Operation Narco Fluxo, which investigates a criminal organization suspected of laundering criminal proceeds through the world of entertainment.
In both cases, the investigations are still ongoing and allegations must be analyzed by Justice, with the right to full defense.
The change accompanies a transformation in the logic of .
A money laundering ceased to be just a consequence of crime and became occupy central position within these structures. More than hiding resources, the objective became to allow them to circulate, are invested in, return to the market and can be used without raising suspicion.
No Brazilthis mechanism is disciplined by the Lei nº 9,613, from 1998which he defines as a crime conceal or disguise the nature, origin, location, movement, disposition or ownership of goods, rights or values arising from a criminal offense. The expected penalty is 3 to 10 years in prison, plus a fine.
From a legal point of view, the laundering should not be confused with the crime that generated the money. It works as a later stage: transforming illegally obtained assets into apparently legitimate assets.
Despite the expression “money laundering” has become popular, Brazilian legislation reaches a broad set of conducts linked to the concealment and circulation of illicit assetswhich is why part of the doctrine prefers to speak of “laundering crimes”.
How illicit money enters the formal economy
Although each investigation has its own characteristics, the Classic washing dynamics usually follow three stages.
The first is called placingwhose aim it usually is remove money from the environment in which it was generated and insert it into activities that justify its existence. Thus, it is the moment when the illegally obtained resource enters the economic system. This can occur through bank deposits, property acquisition, purchase of high-value goods, financial investments, companies, commercial businesses or other operations that move money away from its immediate origin.
Then comes the concealmentin which the purpose stops being to insert money and becomes hinder your tracking. Successive transfers, circulation between accounts, division of values, use of intermediaries, business structures, international remittances and chained financial operations are mechanisms used to break the heritage trail and create layers between the resource and its origin.
This way, instead of a single large-value transaction, o heritage passes through different layers until it loses the appearance of a link with its initial origin. It is precisely at this stage that investigations tend to resort more frequently to banking analysis, asset cross-checking, financial intelligence and tracking of business relationships.
Finally, the integration. At this stage, the heritage returns to the formal economy with the appearance of legality. If the process was successful, the money no longer appears as an illicit resource, but as a result appearance of regular economic activity.
This can happen through the distribution of business profits, investments, asset appreciation, commercial revenue, equity participation, contracts, acquisition of assets or other operations that allow justifying the existence of that asset before the financial system and control bodies. It is at this stage that the resource no longer seems exceptional and starts to present itself as normal part of economic activity.
When the cycle is complete, the money keeps circulatingbut distant from the fact that gave rise to it. In other words, the process works like a process of “cleaning the appearance” of money.
First, the illegally obtained resource enters the economic systemfor example, mixed with a company’s revenue or transformed into equity. Afterwards, he begins to circulate between accounts, people or businesses to make it difficult for anyone to find out where it came from. In the end, this money reappears with appearance of legitimate originas if it had been obtained through business activity, investment or regular income. The goal is not to make the money disappear, but to make it appear to have been earned legally.
What are the most used methods
The best-known forms of washing tend to appear in different combinations.
Among them are:
- shell companies that mix legitimate income and illicit resources;
- companies created only formally;
- use of third parties to hide assets;
- fractionation of operations financial;
- purchase and sale of real estate;
- operations import e export overpriced;
- use of insurance e instruments financial;
- electronic transfers successive;
- movement by legal entities and successive asset changes;
- mix between regular billing e resources without origin proven.
Since 2012, to Brazilian law expanded the scope of the crime.
Previously, it was necessary for the assets to originate from certain specific crimes. Today, it is enough that the resources come from any criminal offensewhich significantly expanded the scope of investigations.
New “washer” characters
For a long time, the imagination about money laundering been associated with discreet financial operators, money changers or companies with no apparent activity. Recent investigations, however, began to describe more sophisticated and pulverized structures.
Instead of keeping resources outside the formal system, criminal organizations began to seek mechanisms capable of inserting assets directly into the regular economyusing companies, contracts, assets, bank circulation and figures with a high capacity for economic movement.
That change appears in recent investigations who stopped looking only at those who carry out crimes and started to focus attention on those who manage assets, organize financial flows or provide the appearance of legality to operations.
In the case of Operation Vernixresearchers maintain that people with consolidated economic activity and public exposure how they could function as heritage integration points.
In the case involving MC Ryan, the Federal Police states that thein which artists and digital influencers used their public visibility and engagement on the internet to naturalize million-dollar transactions arising from illicit resources.
The investigative logic, in these cases, starts from the idea that Modern criminal organizations depend less on the direct circulation of cash and more on the ability to move resources without interrupting their economic use. That’s why, companies, assets, contracts and financial relationships began to occupy increasing space in contemporary investigations into organized crime.
Other side
In a note, the Deolane’s defense manifested itself on Thursday night (21). Read in full:
“The technical defense of lawyer Deolane Bezerra Santos comes, with the utmost respect to the institutions of the Justice System and the Democratic Rule of Law, to provide the necessary clarifications on the events that resulted in her preventive arrest on today’s date, 21.05.26: initially we emphasize her most absolute innocence, as well as, that the facts will be duly clarified by her, at an opportune moment. For now and as due compliance, we consider the measures disproportionate signed against Deolane and this defense panel will continue to cooperate technically with the Court to demonstrate the lawfulness of its activities as a lawyer that it is, fully trusting in the discernment, reasonableness and impartiality of the Judiciary”.
Through social media, the influencer’s lawyer and sister, Daniele Bezerra, stated that Deolane’s new arrest means persecution against the lawyer. See full note:
“Today, once again, they are trying to transform assumptions into truths and headlines into convictions. The arrest of Deolane Bezerra, on allegations of participation in a criminal organization, was born surrounded by lessons, narratives and persecutions that have been repeated for some time. Accusing is easy. It’s difficult to prove. In Brazil, unfortunately, people often first expose themselves, destroy their image and condemn themselves in public opinion… and only then seek evidence to support what was done. And that is serious. It cannot be accepted that Justice is used as a spectacle, nor that people are treated as guilty before due legal process. Prison cannot be an instrument of pressure, marketing or social revenge. Anyone who knows the story, the struggle and its trajectory knows that there is a huge difference between facts and narratives created to fuel attacks. We will continue to trust in the truth, in Justice and in the right to defense, because persecution continues to be persecution, even when they try to give it another name.”
A CNN Brazil also came into contact with Mc Ryan’s defense. The space remains open.
