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A cabinet with R $ 8 million in cash was found today in one of the search and seizure orders executed within the framework of the second phase of Operation Monte Cristo, carried out by the MP-SP (Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo) in order to deepen the investigations into an alleged tax fraud, evasion and money laundering scheme involving five major drug distributors.
The box was found in the house of one of the suspects in Santana de Parnaíba, in Greater São Paulo. He is a partner in a drug retail chain. According to the MP-SP, the damage caused by the scheme to the public coffers in the last six years amounts to approximately R $ 10 billion.
Through Gaeco (Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime), the São Paulo agency launched the operation in conjunction with the Federal Revenue Service, the São Paulo Department of Finance and Planning and the State Attorney General. 88 search and seizure orders are carried out with the support of the Civil Police and the Military Police.
The orders are directed at companies and homes of people linked to the scheme, which has ramifications in Goiás, Minas Gerais. In the state of São Paulo, in addition to Greater São Paulo, we also searched Ribeirão Preto, São José do Rio Preto, Bauru, Piracicaba and Campinas.
The scheme was denounced in award-winning agreements signed after the first phase of the operation, carried out in 2017, and involves five large drug distributors, two retail chains with more than 300 stores and an association of national distributors (Medicamental, Navarro , Dismed, TFarma, Divamed, Bifarma, Champion and Abradilan).
In addition to the orders issued by the titular judge of the 2nd Criminal Court of São José dos Campos, Brenno Gimenes Cesca, the court also ordered, at the request of the MP-SP, the kidnapping of 17 properties.
ICMS Evaded Scheme
The tax fraud investigated by the MP-SP began with the creation of drug wholesalers, some of them at the helm, in the states of Goiás and São Paulo. These companies acted as intermediaries between the laboratories that manufacture the drugs, most of them located in the state of São Paulo, and the stores that sell the drugs.
The scheme was based on the transfer of the payment of the ICMS (Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services) to front companies or companies that could not pay the taxes. Thus, both drug producers and sellers were freed from the tax obligation, in addition to making it difficult to control the crime.
According to the MP-SP, the lack of binding tax obligations for distributors and pharmacy chains led to “unfair competition in the retail drug market.”
In the first phase of the operation, the main objective of the investigations was the Farma Conde pharmacy chain, which operates in the Paraíba Valley region. In today’s lawsuits, the names of the investigated companies were not disclosed by the MP-SP.
In addition to the search warrants, the second phase of Operation Montecristo also carried out inspection actions today. The Ministry of Finance inspected 54 taxpayers distributed in 16 of the 18 tax offices in São Paulo that show signs of recoilless the anticipation of the ICMS regarding the entry of medicines into the state.
* With information from Estadão Content
