- On videoMarcelo VIP talked about pretending to be a guitarist from Engenheiros do Hawaii to pull off a scam; watch
- Marcelo VIP has diedcon artist who inspired a film starring Wagner Moura
During a party in Recife (PE), Marcelo VIP posed as Henrique Constantino, one of the founders of Gol Linhas Aéreas, giving interviews to television programs as if he were the businessman. This audacity attracted national and international attention and fooled, in addition to Amaury Jr., celebrities such as Ricardo Macchi, Marcos Frota and Carolina Dieckmann.
The presenter recalled the meeting with Marcelo VIP and spoke about it on the Ticaracaticacast podcast, in October 2023. According to Amaury Jr., at the time he boarded a helicopter piloted by the scammer with his family to go to a Folia de Recife party. The surprise of discovering Marcelo’s true identity made him think about the risks he took without being able to imagine it:
— I thought that if this guy is crazy, a guy who is looking for fame, for him to become really famous, it’s easy for him to take a ride in this helicopter and fall… I was scared afterwards, — he said during the podcast.
Amaury Jr. also recalled that, good at conversation, Marcelo VIP knew everything about Gol, a company that claimed to be one of the founders.
— This guy was great, but I feel like I was the idiot in all of Brazil because I was in the press and because I was with him almost all the time in Recife Folia… He was a remarkable guy, he knew everything about the airline — he said.
- Marcelo VIP: The crook who inspired the film starring Wagner Moura has died of liver complications
The story of his scams, escapes and arrests inspired the film “VIPs – Real Stories of a Liar”, starring Wagner Moura and released in 2011. At the time of filming, Marcelo was imprisoned in the PCE, where he remained for four years until he left the regime in 2014. As there was no unit available for the semi-open prison, he began serving his sentence at his home, monitored by an electronic ankle monitor.
In 2018, however, he was arrested again for falsifying documents to advance the regime. Throughout his life, he racked up convictions for association with drug trafficking, plane theft, embezzlement and ideological lying. He has been arrested at least 12 times and participated in six escapes from the prison system. After leaving prison for the last time, Rocha sought to rewrite his trajectory and began working as a speaker and writer.
Marcelo has worked in recent years as a writer. He also sold courses on persuasion. Participating in Ticaracaticast in May, he recalled his first big move, at 18 years old.
“I pretended to be the guitarist of Engenheiros do Hawaii. I bought a penthouse in Balneário Camboriu without a dollar in my pocket and sold it to three different people,” the scammer said in a video posted online.
Marcelo Nascimento da Rocha was born in Maringá on March 19, 1976, son of Josélia Nascimento and Aparecido Hildo da Rocha. In the 1990s and 2000s, he was a drug-trafficking airline pilot and became one of Brazil’s most famous crooks. In addition to the most famous scam, when he pretended to be the owner of Gol, he also posed as a guitarist of the Engenheiros do Hawaii and a representative of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) as a leader of the rebellion.
When his parents divorced in 1984, he began living between Paraná and a farm in Rondônia, where his father had moved. In his book, he says that it was after the death of his father following a heart attack, a few years later, that he decided to “venture” and “know” the world. Since he had no money, he started scamming people into traveling.
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