The two, who remained fugitives from justice until the publication of this report, are named by prosecutors as leaders of a criminal scheme that operated in the fuel sector. They were denounced for money laundering and ideological falsehood.
As part of this expansion project, according to the complaint, it was planned to build a headquarters for the conglomerate in Catanduva, in the interior of São Paulo. The project was described by the promoters as a corporate building of “pharaonic” dimensions: it would have three floors and 6,733.36 m² of built area on a plot of approximately 10 thousand m².
The land where the headquarters would be built was purchased for R$3.9 million. According to the Public Ministry, the money came from the account of Aster Petróleo, a company acquired by Beto Louco and Primo in 2020, and passed through five intermediary accounts before reaching the company that formally purchased the properties.
For the promoters, the path taken by the money and the corporate structure used in the acquisition were intended to hide the final beneficiaries of the properties and make it difficult to identify who actually controlled them.
According to the complaint, the financial structure investigated in Operation Hidden Carbon was allegedly used to hide money from fraud that resulted in more than R$1 billion in taxes owed. It is in this context that the project for the Itajobi Group headquarters in Catanduva appears.
In a statement, Mohamad's defense said that the complaint "repeats the entire stratagem that Operation Hidden Carbon has been developing since it was launched, which is the strategy of speculation on unproven facts that are inserted within a narrative disconnected from reality."
"It is not possible, from the complaint, to extract what is the fact that is the subject of the accusation. It is a 300-page complaint, from which it is not even possible to point out which is the antecedent crime that would be the subject of laundering. Sometimes the complaint talks about context, sometimes it talks about other ongoing processes, of investigative operations that came before, to in the end repeat that speculative narrative: that there is a large laundering process without explaining what the money is being laundered, coming from where and in what way the alleged washing".
Roberto Lemos' defense said that it will prove, in the course of the process, "the unfoundedness of the complaint offered, demonstrating, furthermore, the nullity of the case being processed in State Court, which by all evidence contradicts the legal terms."
The two plots of land destined for the headquarters were acquired in October 2023. According to the complaint, the money used for the purchase left the Aster Petróleo account at 1:14 pm and passed through five intermediary accounts until arriving at RGP Property, at 1:22 pm.
Subsequently, the company that received the amounts made the payment to the sellers at 2:23 pm.
On January 11, 2024, Usina Itajobi Ltda. — Açúcar e Álcool presented a request for a permit to the Catanduva City Council for the construction of a commercial building for corporate offices. The document indicated that the objective was to build the headquarters of the Itajobi Group.
The project included three floors and 6,733.36 m² of built area on a plot of approximately 10 thousand m².
For the Public Ministry, the size of the project represented a large real estate asset, with high asset value and the need for significant investment.
"The pharaonic work demonstrates the expansionist intention of the criminal organization, sprinkled with illicit money", stated the MP.
Technical responsibility for the project was the responsibility of Conceb Engenharia Ltda., through engineer Ali Mohamad Mourad, cousin of Mohamad Hussein Mourad, according to the complaint.
During an investigation at the site, investigators found a sign from the engineering company on the land, located at Rua Martinho Canozo, Quadra C, Lots 5 and 6. The sign referred to Permit No. 56,656 and process No. 565/2024, dated January 11, 2024.
According to the complaint, the R$3.9 million used to purchase the land came from Aster Petróleo's account and was transferred, in sequence, through the accounts of the companies SM Serviços, HIMAD, INSIGHT and STRUCTURA, until reaching RGP Property.
According to the MP, there were five intermediate accounts between the origin and destination of the money. The entire journey would have taken eight minutes, from 1:14 pm to 1:22 pm.
For the promoters, the transfers had no economic or financial justification and were intended to distance the final beneficiaries of the properties from the origin of the resources used in the purchase.
Formally, the land was acquired by RGP Participações Ltda., later renamed FL Properties and Investments Ltda.
Despite this, the construction request presented to Catanduva City Hall named Usina Itajobi as responsible for the project and indicated that the building would be the headquarters of the Itajobi Group.
According to the complaint, this would demonstrate a dissociation between the formal ownership of the properties and the beneficiary of the investments.
The MP states that the land was destined for the future headquarters of the Itajobi Group, while the formal ownership was linked to a company that was part of the Pompeia Fund structure, under Scotia Holdings.
For the Prosecutor's Office, this corporate structure would have been used to hide the final beneficiaries and make it difficult to identify who actually controlled the properties.
The Public Prosecutor's Office asked the Court to forfeit the two plots of land and the construction related to Permit No. 56,656.
The MP's new complaint, the result of Operation Hidden Carbon, points to the use of an intricate financial mechanism. The scheme ranged from shell companies to investment funds to mask illicit assets.
According to the MP, those investigated had the intention of establishing themselves as a sugar-energy power in the region, through the Itajobi Group.
The main origin of the illicit resources would be the actions of the criminal organization itself through "structured tax fraud", in which the group simulated imports to evade taxes.
Furthermore, the MP points out that the illicit money also came from crimes against the consumer — such as fraud at pumps and the sale of adulterated fuel at gas stations — and from previous infractions involving the import of naphtha, a petroleum derivative used to adulterate fuels.
To dispose of the money generated by fraud, the group resorted to three fronts in the financial market, according to the MP.
First, it registered dozens of companies in the name of oranges. Only one of the companies would have generated R$15 billion, operating as a kind of slush fund.
Then, payment accounts (fintechs) were used to spread resources. The scheme used "pocket accounts" to camouflage the origin and final destination of the money, circumventing the control of the National Financial System.
At the top of the chain, resources flowed into the capital market. With the participation of a manager and a lawyer, the scheme created closed funds to “shield” the money, hiding the true beneficiaries.
