Campinas businessman has been waiting for 6 months to recover company transferred without authorization

More than six months after discovering that his company had been transferred to someone else using documents that he claims were false, a businessman from Campinas says he has accumulated losses of more than R$300,000 and is still waiting to regain control of the business.

The change of ownership was registered with the Commercial Board of the State of São Paulo (Jucesp) at the beginning of this year. Businessman Ricardo Schiavon claims that he never authorized the operation and that the document used to change the corporate structure contained forged signatures.

Since discovering the case, in March, he filed a police report, took legal action and hired private expertise to try to reverse the situation.

Still in March, the Court granted an injunction suspending the effects of the contractual change. Despite this, Ricardo is still waiting for the necessary procedures to be completed to recover the company's registration.

Jucesp informed that the process is still being processed internally so that the decision can be made effective, with the correction of records and communication to the competent bodies, such as the Public Ministry, City Hall and Federal Revenue.

The Board also stated that any signs of irregularities committed by civil servants will be analyzed by the Internal Affairs Department - see the full note below.

Understand the case

The office furniture trading company was opened in 2014. In January of this year, a contractual change was filed with Jucesp that fully transferred the company to a third person, who Ricardo stated he did not know.

The registry change was approved in February. In practice, the change removed the original partners from the company's official records and placed a new owner as the sole holder of the CNPJ.

The case only came to light on March 5, when the company's accountant identified a registration inconsistency during the issuance of a certificate.

"I received a call from my accountant saying: 'Ricardo, did you sell your company?'. I said: 'no, are you crazy? How did I sell the company?'. Then he pulled out the social contract at Jucesp and the company was actually in that person's name", reported the businessman.

On the same day, Ricardo went to the 10th Police District of Campinas and filed a police report for fraudulent misrepresentation. Hours later, when consulting reports from the Central Bank, he identified movements that, according to him, he never authorized.

Account opening and loans

The documents obtained by Ricardo indicate that, after the contractual change, seven digital bank accounts linked to the company's CNPJ were opened in financial institutions and fintechs.

According to him, in one of the accounts a loan of R$30,000 was taken out without authorization from the original owners. The total size of the financial loss, however, is still unknown.

"I managed to access just one account, where they made a loan of R$30,000. Then there are six more banks that I don't know about, because the banks can't give me information. So it's a bit open. I don't know the size of the hole yet. I'll know when the company gets back to me," he said.

In addition to the possible financial losses, the businessman stated that he has already spent more than R$300,000 trying to recover the company's registration. The amount, according to him, includes legal fees, procedural costs, expertise and other expenses related to the administrative and judicial dispute.

Operation affected

Ricardo said that the situation also directly affected the company's routine. According to him, there were difficulties related to the CNPJ and the business's financial operations, including the cancellation of Pix keys and restrictions on movements that depend on regular registration.

"Today my CNPJ is suspended at the Federal Revenue Service. I am unable to operate the company. I have contracts with large companies and I am no longer making sales because of this situation," he said.

According to Ricardo, the difficulty in operating the company after the fraud put contracts maintained with large companies, such as CPFL, Ambev and Azul, at risk.

Expertise points to forgery

The businessman also went to court to question the contractual change.

In June, a graphodocumentoscopic opinion prepared by expert Alexandre Bigheti concluded that the signature attributed to Ricardo in the document filed with Jucesp presents characteristics of forgery through servile imitation, when someone tries to manually reproduce an authentic signature.

The report also pointed out inconsistencies related to the documentation presented in the contract change process.

What does Jucesp say?

"The Commercial Board of the State of São Paulo (Jucesp) informs that it received the process referring to the request for administrative annulment of the transfer of the company and adopted the appropriate measures, observing the applicable administrative procedures. After analysis, the annulment of the act in question was determined, in accordance with Jucesp Ordinance No. 69/2020.

The process is being processed internally to carry out the necessary steps to implement the measures resulting from this decision, including registration correction and communications to the competent bodies, including the Public Ministry, City Hall and the Federal Revenue Service.

If signs of functional misconduct or irregular conduct on the part of employees are identified, the process will be forwarded to the Jucesp Internal Affairs Department for evaluation and adoption of appropriate measures.

Jucesp emphasizes that, in almost all cases of this nature, the institution itself is also a victim of bad faith on the part of third parties and that it adopts the relevant administrative measures whenever irregularities are found."