By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazil’s tax authority identified fintech BK Bank as a key link between two major investigations into money laundering schemes connected to the Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC, São Paulo’s most powerful criminal organization.
The comments came Thursday from Receita Federal Secretary Robinson Barreirinhas, who said the bank acted as a channel between Operation Spare, launched this week by São Paulo prosecutors, military police and the tax authority, and the earlier Carbono Oculto probe that exposed ties between financial markets on Avenida Faria Lima and organized crime, according to Valor Econômico.
Although BK Bank was not among the 25 search targets in the latest raids, its name appears in the court decision that authorized the operation. Prosecutor Silvio Loubeh said the fintech had already been subject to a warrant weeks earlier: “It ended up undermining the idea of going back there. We will proceed through evidence sharing,” he told reporters.
Billions in fuel sales under scrutiny
Authorities targeted five companies and 20 individuals connected to gas stations, gambling businesses, a motel chain, franchised retail stores and real estate firms. According to Receita, at least 267 active gas stations moved more than 4.5 billion reais ($820 million) between 2020 and 2024, but paid only 4.5 million reais in federal taxes — just 0.1% of the total volume.
“The link is exactly the fintech. In the earlier operation, there were more than 1,200 gas stations. This time, almost 100 outlets of a major franchise network across Brazil were also being used in the scheme,” Barreirinhas said at the São Paulo prosecutors’ office.
How the scheme worked
Receita’s São Paulo superintendent, Márcia Meng, said multiple businesses — from fuel stations to a chain of 60 motels and cosmetics stores — were used to inject illicit resources into the financial system. “The fintech’s card machines were systematically used as a gateway for cash into its systems. These schemes need a door to funnel live money into the pooled account,” she said.
That pooled account, maintained at BK Bank, mixed legal and illegal funds, obscuring their origin and destination.
Luxury purchases and PCC ties
Prosecutor Loubeh said funds were also used for luxury acquisitions beyond the companies’ declared revenues. “We identified the purchase of assets and even helicopters by the motel chain, which were not compatible with its reported income,” he noted.
São Paulo Attorney General Paulo Sérgio Oliveira Costa said the group under investigation maintained links with PCC figures. “We have already identified companies controlled by this group that received absurd volumes of cash deposits, very likely from organized crime,” he said.
Deputy Attorney General Caio César Guzzardi said investigators have requested asset freezes totaling about 7.6 billion reais against 55 defendants, including vehicles, investment funds, equities, bank accounts and other holdings.
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