According to Brazilian news outlet Agência Brasil, authorities in Rio de Janeiro recently uncovered a money laundering scheme in which state officials misstate the budget spent on food for state-run prisons. Bitcoin was reportedly used to exchange some of the scheme’s proceeds, which totaled roughly $22.4 million.
After the scheme was discovered, search warrants were issued to 28 different sites, with seven people having been arrested so far. Among those arrested are Rio de Janeiro’s former state secretary of Prison Administration, coronel Cesar Rubens Monteiro, and delegate Marcelo Martins, director of the Department of Specialized Police of the Civil Police.
Luíz Henrique Casemiro, Superintendent of the Internal Revenue Service in Rio, revealed this was the first time cryptocurrencies were used in such an operation. He stated (roughly translated):
“We drew attention, in the Federal Revenue, regarding this specific operation, because for the first time appear operations involving bitcoin. That’s a novelty, it shows that people are trying to improve in some way, maybe fly below the Central Bank and the IRS’ radar.”
At least one state official claimed the scheme was spearheaded by Sérgio Cabral, a former Rio de Janeiro Governor who was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year over money laundering and corruption charges.
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