Two alleged members of a group that provided money laundering services to the criminal faction PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), target of a mega-operation last week, turned themselves in to the civil police this Friday (5), in São Paulo.
Alessandro Rogério Momi Braga, known as Morango or Alemão, and Manoel Sérgio Sanches, known as Mané, are identified by the Deic investigation (State Criminal Investigation Department) as important intermediaries in a project that involves a network of dozens of companies used to hide money from crimes such as drug trafficking, gambling, embezzlement and extortion.
THE Leaf He looked for a lawyer who defends Braga and Sanches this Saturday (6), but did not receive a response until the publication of this text.
Braga owns the Key Car group of companies, identified as a central player in the money laundering scheme. Sanches, in turn, was considered a hidden partner in the investigation.
Companies in this group were allegedly used to make cash payments and bank transfers to dozens of people and companies suspected of engaging in money laundering, according to a document obtained by the report. The project, discovered during Operation False Mercury, moves millions of reais per day.
The document highlights that the Key Car group received, for example, money from the illegal operation of slot machines. After collecting sums from suspects identified as “collectors” of criminal money, the group of people coordinated by Braga transferred it to the bank accounts of the orange companies or the collectors themselves, that is, they returned the “laundered” money.
To do this, they received a commission paid directly to the intermediary, via invoices or transfers to third-party accounts, according to the investigation. There are also cases in which intermediaries receive cash and pass it on to a final beneficiary, who makes deposits directly into the accounts of the money collectors, thereby simulating commercial transactions.
Messages found on cellphones seized by civil police show Braga personally directing payment splitting, a technique that allows transfers to go unnoticed by enforcement agencies and makes it difficult to track money.
The messages also show that he proposed to the CNPJ (National Register of Legal Persons) of one of his companies to register him as the owner of a vehicle used by a person linked to the group of money collectors. For the police, this is another indication that he offered the service of hiding assets.
The use of luxury cars from the Braga and Sanches companies was one of the services offered to criminals interested in hiding assets, according to police. 257 cars worth 42 million reais were seized during the operation on Thursday (4), according to the Secretariat of Public Security.
Braga is treated in the investigation as a leader of the money laundering system. All managers and associates report to him, according to the investigation document. The investigation revealed that he transferred at least 17 million reais in just over two years, but estimates that this amount represents only part of the total linked to the scheme.
Poker house bank account
Manoel Sanches appears in the investigation and repeatedly talks about money with Braga, as well as the alleged money collectors and final beneficiaries of the investigated scheme.
In conversations with Braga, they discuss the values both would have received for the services provided. For the police, this indicates that he actually held a stake in the Key Car group companies suspected of money laundering.
Sanches was at the company’s headquarters during the execution of the search and seizure warrants of the first phase of the Falso Mercúrio.
In one of the conversations intercepted by the police, Sanches tries to facilitate the payment of R$400,000 to one of the final beneficiaries of the money laundering scheme. The account indicated for payment comes from a poker house, which arouses the customer’s fear.
The registered address of the poker house is the same as that of a karaoke bar in the Liberdade district, in central São Paulo.
To convince him, Sanches transmits to his partner an audio from Alessandro Braga, in which he states that it would be advantageous to use the bookmaker’s account. If questioned by any authority about the money, he could justify that he was addicted to gambling to justify this unusual move, Braga suggests. The customer agreed.
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