According to the IRS, an audit of tax data leaks involves dozens of systems and taxpayers
Revenue employees assigned to other bodies were the target this Tuesday, 17th, of an operation ordered by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to investigate violations of tax secrecy of relatives of Court ministers. Although neither the Court nor the Revenue have informed who the victims are, Estadão found that one of them is the wife of minister Alexandre de Moraes. The other would be the son of a Supreme Court minister.
According to the IRS, an audit of the tax data leak involves dozens of systems and taxpayers. The Supreme Court reported that “several and multiple illicit accesses to the system of the Federal Revenue Service of Brazil were found, followed by subsequent leaks of confidential information” (see below).
The names of those investigated were released by the STF, through a note. They are: public servants Luiz Antônio Martins Nunes, Luciano Pery Santos Nascimento, Ruth Machado dos Santos and Ricardo Mansano de Moraes.
Until the publication of this text, Estadão sought contact with the defenses, but without success. The space remains open.
What is known about the targets
Ricardo Mansano de Moraes
He has been a Revenue auditor since May 2007. He received R$51,000 in salaries in December, according to the Transparency Portal. Mansano is part of the Tax Credit and Credit Law Management Team (Eqrat) – a technical arm of the Revenue that analyzes, audits and manages the credits that taxpayers have to receive from the Union, and also controls tax credits owed to the Tax Authorities.
Mansano works at the Revenue Department in Presidente Prudente, in the interior of São Paulo. He lives in São José do Rio Preto, 433 km from the capital of São Paulo.
Ruth Machado dos Santos
In civil service since 1994, she is a Social Security technician in São Paulo. She works as an administrative agent at a Revenue station in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo. In December, his paycheck was R$11,664.79.
Luciano Pery Santos Nascimento
He is also a Social Security technician and received R$18,777.19. Based in Bahia, he has been in public service since 1983.
Luiz Antônio Martins Nunes
He is an employee of Serpro (Federal Data Processing Service) in Rio de Janeiro. He has been with the organization since 2000.
The four investigated were removed from their duties and had their confidentiality broken (banking, tax and telematics) by order of Minister Alexandre de Moraes.
They are prohibited from leaving the cities where they live and are forced to stay at home at night and on weekends. The suspects had their passports withheld and are prohibited from leaving the country or entering Serpro (Federal Data Processing Service) and Revenue facilities.
The operation
By order of the Federal Supreme Court, this Carnival Tuesday, the 17th, the Federal Police carried out four search and seizure warrants in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia, as part of an investigation investigating possible leaks of Federal Revenue data on Court ministers and their families.
The measure was taken after representation from the Attorney General’s Office.
In a statement, the Federal Revenue acknowledged that data was accessed improperly and that investigations continue to be in-depth. Tax experts made a point of highlighting that they do not tolerate “deviations, especially those related to tax secrecy, a basic pillar of the tax system”.
“The Federal Revenue systems are fully traceable, so that any deviation is detectable, auditable and punishable, including in the criminal sphere. Since 2023, data access controls have been expanded, with strong restrictions on access profiles and expansion of alerts”, says the statement.
In January, the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, ex officio opened an investigation to investigate whether the Federal Revenue Service and the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) irregularly broke the tax secrecy of Court ministers and family members.
“On January 12, the STF requested the Federal Revenue Service to audit its systems to identify deviations in access to data from Court ministers, relatives and others over the last three years. The work was included in a procedure that had already been opened the previous day by the Federal Revenue Inspectorate based on news published in the press”, follows the IRS statement.
The body reported that “the audit, which involves dozens of systems and taxpayers, is ongoing, and deviations already detected were preliminarily reported to the STF rapporteur”.
According to Estadão, the IRS questions the investigation, since, according to interlocutors, the body does not have data on private contracts and, in addition, access to confidential information without an open tax procedure is a practice subject to the penalty of dismissal.
Suspicions that confidential data from ministers and their families were leaked arose after the outbreak of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates Banco Master.
In December, the newspaper O Globo revealed details of the contract of Moraes’ wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, to defend the interests of Banco Master and Daniel Vorcaro at the Central Bank, the Federal Revenue Service and the National Congress.
According to the contract, signed in January 2024, Viviane’s office would receive R$3.6 million per month over three years. If it had been fully complied with, the Barci de Moraes Associados office would have received R$129 million by the beginning of 2027.
When the investigation investigating possible leaks of tax data from Supreme Court ministers and family members was opened by Alexandre de Moraes, Estadão learned, with reservation, that a group of ministers defends that the investigation clarifies whether there was a leak of confidential information by federal bodies. Another wing of the Court, however, assesses that the new investigation could be interpreted as a form of pressure or reprisal against control bodies.
*Estadão Content
