Revenue seizes almost 15 kg of gold in Guarulhos

The payment of emergency aid to the partner of an export company in Pará led the Federal Revenue Service of Brazil to confiscate 14.74 kg in gold bars at the international airport of Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo.

The declared value of the cargo is approximately R$ 4.6 million, according to a note published by the Revenue last Thursday (18th).

Upon analyzing two export declarations made by the company, the Customs inspection at Guarulhos International Airport, in Greater São Paulo, suspected fraudulent interposition, which means that the agency suspected that the documentation concealed the real person responsible for the goods.

The payment of the federal government’s social benefit was not in line with the condition of partner of a company that moved a high volume of resources.

Emergency aid was created at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to guarantee a minimum income for families who lost income due to restrictive movement measures required to control infections by the new coronavirus.

The documentation, called DU-E (Single Export Declarations), was submitted to parameterization in the red channel, which in customs inspection jargon means that there should be a rigorous analysis of the paperwork and the verification of the cargo.

Safia (Customs Inspection Section) concluded that there was no proof of the origin, availability and transfer of resources used in exports, resulting in the forfeiture notice being issued.

After analyzing the objection made by the exporting company, the Unit delegate upheld the assessment and applied the penalty of forfeiting the gold bars in favor of the Union on November 13th.

The company also filed two actions in the Federal Court, but it was unsuccessful, according to the Revenue.

Higher prices boost illegal mining

Considered a safe haven for investments in times of crisis, gold, gold gained intense appreciation with the pandemic, also boosting the extraction of metal through illegal mining.

In the opinion of specialists, the ease with which irregular gold circulates demonstrates weaknesses both in legislation and in inspection to curb fraud with the certification of origin of the mineral that is inserted in the financial system.

“[A regulação] it is a poorly organized legislative tangle, which leaves room for interpretation for those who are operating”, says prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Moreira Oliveira, from the Federal Public Ministry of Pará, who in 2019 took part in an operation against illegal trade.

The investigation found the purchase of almost 611 kilos of gold of clandestine origin between 2015 and 2018. The scheme consisted of acquiring the metal without legal origin and then “heating” it with a certificate of mining in legalized areas.

The purchase of gold from garimpeiros is made mainly by companies called DTVMs (distributors of bonds and securities), an activity regulated by the Central Bank, which are responsible for registering the product in the financial system.

Although exploration is also carried out by large international miners, there are DTVMs among the main payers of Cfem, the royalty levied on ore production, in a sign that they handle large volumes.