It is necessary to “stifle funding sources” to adequately combat organized crime. He defended the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, during a press interview to comment on the final results of the Federal Revenue’s Border Operation, this Friday afternoon (31), in São Paulo.
“We have been saying a lot to those in government that, in addition to the territorial issue and in addition to serving an arrest warrant, which are important, if we don’t stifle the financing of organized crime it won’t work. We have to come in on top, fighting and stifle the financing of organized crime”, he stated.
“It’s not just the factory floor, we need to reach the CEOs. The CEOs of organized crime also need to pay for what they do. If it doesn’t reach the management, the board, the CEO, you’ll have that money going back to supplying organized crime”, highlighted Haddad.
The minister’s speech takes place in the same week that a police operation was launched in Rio de Janeiro against the criminal organization Comando Vermelho and which ended with the death of more than a hundred peoplewhich generated criticism and international repercussions.
For the head of the Treasury, there is no point in carrying out the fight only within communities if the command of organized crime is not stifled.
“You go into the community imagining that you are fighting organized crime and the real criminal is somewhere else, in another country, taking advantage of illicitly accumulated wealth, contrary to Brazilian law and grooming young people, taking lives, putting the population at risk. That’s what we need to understand. We need to act on all layers of crime,” he said.
Request to Cláudio Castro
During the interview, the minister made a special request to the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, saying that it is necessary for the PL, the party of which Castro is a member, to approve the law on persistent debtors. This law tightens the rules for so-called persistent debtors, such as those who use tax default as a business strategy, failing to pay taxes repeatedly and without justification.
“I am making an appeal for the governor to convince his party’s Rio de Janeiro bench to vote in favor of the law on persistent debtors, because I repeat, we have to work on all layers of organized crime operations,” he said. “The PL needs to understand the importance of this project that was dormant”, added Haddad.
persistent debtors
According to Haddad, many of these stubborn debtors in the country are involved in crime in Rio de Janeiro. “The persistent debtor is a fancy word to talk about the evader. And, behind the evader, what is actually organized crime”, he highlighted.
In Haddad’s understanding, “a persistent debtor is a type of tax evader who uses legal and fraudulent strategies to prevent the Federal Revenue Service and the Federal and Civil Police from reaching people who are laundering money in supposed legal activities”, he explained.
“In general, the origin of organized crime’s money is illicit and it seeks to mix it with legal activities to launder money. This is what happens with the gas station, with the motels in the Marginais region [Pinheiros e Tietê] that were banned here in São Paulo”, added the minister.
Funds/CPFs
To help combat this organized crime, Haddad informed that the Federal Revenue today published a normative instruction that obliges funds to disclose beneficiaries’ CPFs. “Now all funds will be forced to mention the CPF. So, if there is a pyramid scheme, a fund that controls a fund that controls a fund, you will have to get the person’s CPF”, he said.
“With this determination by the Federal Revenue, now we will know the CPF behind it, the person behind it. We will know if it is an orange person, if it is a resident, if it is a non-resident. We will know exactly who this person is and we will increase our supervisory power”, added Haddad.
Operation Border
Speaking of the final results of Operation Border, which began on October 22nd and, according to the Federal Revenue, was the largest surveillance and repression initiative at land, sea and air border points used in smuggling routes, embezzlement and crimes such as drug, weapons and animal trafficking, Haddad reported that, in the last 15 days, 27 people were arrested, 213 thousand liters of adulterated drink and more than 3 tons of drugs were seized.
This was done with the help of the governors of Paraná, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and with the entire federal apparatus combined, integrated. There were no shots, no deaths. We seized more than a thousand weapons from organized crime. We discovered a plan to steal these weapons that are now under the custody of the Armed Forces. We closed a 20-story building with illicit goods in Belo Horizonte. All of this was done with a federative partnership, without looking at anyone’s political party, making state bodies work cooperatively in the border regions”, he highlighted.
The Federal Revenue reported that the operation, concluded today, was carried out in 60 municipalities in 20 states. Agents removed more than R$160 million worth of illegal goods from circulation. There were also 27 arrests in the act of suspects involved in drug trafficking and smuggling. Furthermore, an aircraft carrying more than 500 high-value smartphones was seized.
In addition to the Federal Revenue Service, several public security, inspection and defense institutions participated in Operation Border, such as the Brazilian Army, Brazilian Navy, Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, State Highway Police, Military Police, Civil Police and Municipal Guards. Other control bodies such as Ibama, Mapa, Anac, Anatel and Anvisa are also part of the initiative.
