The company is considered the largest tax debtor in Brazil, was the target of police operations and banned by the ANP
The interim governor of Rio de Janeiro, Ricardo Couto, decided to expropriate the land where the Refit oil refinery is located, in the north of the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
The information was published by journalist Lauro Jardim and was confirmed by Poder360 this Sunday (May 24, 2026).
Led by Ricardo Magro, the company is considered by the Federal Revenue to be the country’s company, with R$55 billion in debts to the States, municipalities and the Union. The Manguinhos refinery, as the place is also known, was the target of police operations and came to be by the ANP (National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) in September and October 2025.
The Rio de Janeiro administration has not yet announced the value of the expropriation, but, according to the newspaper The Globe, Couto should not pay compensation to Magro. It must be deducted from the debt that the company owes to the State. There are R$14.3 billion in ICMS alone.
On Thursday (May 21, 2026), the president (PT). Until then, Lula had been referring to the owner of Refit indirectly, as “one of the great bosses of organized crime”.
On May 15, Lula asked the President of the United States, Donald Trump (Republican Party), to arrest the businessman, who is on the run in the USA. He had been from the Federal Police on the same day.
“Do you want to fight organized crime? Give me this straight away”declared Lula when citing a conversation he had with the North American on the subject. According to the president, Magro is “the biggest debtor of public money in this country”.
In response to Couto’s decision, Refit said in a statement that the tax issues are being resolved in court and that the operations against the company harm competition in the fuel sector, favoring a cartel. Read the full note at the end of this report.
INVESTIGATIONS AGAINST REFIT
The Refit Group was the target of an investigation in 2010 into the fuel mafia in Rio de Janeiro, under suspicion of carrying out a tax maneuver to import gasoline without paying taxes and selling the product to distributors.
The refinery lost refining as its main activity and was classified by the State Finance Department as a fuel distributor.
In 2025, the company was also the target of the Hidden Carbon operation, which investigates the supply of fuel to distributors linked to the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital).
In November, it was the target of another operation, Poço Lobato. It was being investigated on suspicions of tax evasion, structured fraud and concealment of assets that may have caused a loss of more than R$26 billion to public coffers.
In 2026, investigations led to accusations of involvement by the former governor of Rio de Janeiro (PL) and the senator (PP-PI). Both said they were innocent.
Here is the full note from Refit:
“Refit clarifies that tax issues involving the company are being discussed at the judicial and administrative level, as are several companies in the sector, including Petrobras itself, currently one of the largest tax debtors in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
“It is important to highlight that Refit’s current management inherited tax liabilities accumulated by previous administrations and, since then, has been adopting measures to regularize these obligations. To the State of Rio alone, the company made payments of around R$1 billion in the last year.
“The operations against Refit harm competition in the fuel sector and favor the activities of a cartel formed by 3 large companies already condemned by Cade for controlling the price of fuel at gas stations, harming the population and contributing to the increase in inflation in the country.
“Refit has never falsified tax declarations to obtain tax advantages. Scientific reports on the cargo seized in the latest operations prove that the imported product is crude petroleum oil, as duly declared in the import document. It is surprising that the Federal Revenue Service prevents the carrying out of judicial expertise that could corroborate the reports of professionals already presented in court.
“Refit vehemently denies having supplied fuel to organized crime. On the contrary, it has always acted as a whistleblower for stations linked to criminal factions, including those with renowned brands that are part of the ICL (Instituto Combustível Legal) and were targets of police operations. It should also be noted that the closure of Copape, in mid-2024, a formulator linked to the PCC, was also the result of complaints that came from Refit to the authorities and the ANP.”
