Former luxury empire, Daslu brand goes to auction and already receives 2 bids of R$ 1,411 million

On Tuesday morning (7), the Daslu logo occupied a discreet spot on the auctioneer Sodré Santoro’s website, in a session that indicated the highest bids. The former luxury brand owned by brothers Eliana Tranchesi and Antônio Carlos Piva, offered for R$1.41 million, shared space with a residential property in Parque Petrópolis, in Mairiporã (SP), worth R$403,000, a Scania R540 2021 quoted at R$208,000 and a 2021 Nissan Frontier for R$176,000.

The brand of the former luxury brand, which in the past boasted a 20,000 m² building on the Pinheiros waterfront, in the southwest of São Paulo, received until 10:50 am this Tuesday two bids of R$ 1.411 million (the bids were R$ BRL 1,411,022.00 and BRL 1,411,950.00). Bids will be received by 1pm. Whoever takes the brand, will still pay 5% commission to the auctioneer.

The boutique’s brand, which was once considered the most luxurious address in the country, will be sold so that its resources can be used to pay debts from the company’s bankruptcy process, as determined by the Justice of São Paulo.

In 2005, a Federal Police operation, launched in partnership with the Federal Revenue Service and the Public Ministry, to investigate crimes of tax evasion committed, arrested the owners of Daslu. They were sentenced to 94 years for conspiracy, fraud in imports and forgery of documents.

Eliana died in 2012 of cancer, and Antônio Carlos Piva is in prison.

HISTORY

The luxury store – which in the past was considered the most traditional in São Paulo – was founded 59 years ago by partners Lucia Piva de Albuquerque and Lourdes Aranha.

Until the beginning of the 80’s, it sold only national clothes and accessories. After Lucia’s death, her daughter Eliana.

With the new management, the store became its own brand and, from the 90’s onwards, it began to work with imported luxury brands, after the release of this type of product by President Fernando Collor de Mello. Tranchesi went to Europe and returned with suitcases full of bags and famous shoes that were popular with wealthy people in São Paulo.

At its height of fame, Daslu was known as a “temple of luxury” and occupied an area of ​​more than 15,000 m² in a neoclassical style building with Greek columns in Vila Olímpia, next to where the JK Iguatemi mall would be built, in west of São Paulo.

In 2005, before seeing its empire overthrown by a series of scandals, Tranchesi’s store generated around R$400 million in sales a year, according to experts consulted by Folha, and employed around 1,000 people.

Among them, there were the “dasluzetes”, salespeople at the stores — often from wealthy families — who received up to R$15,000 a month, including commissions on clothing and accessories whose values ​​reached more than five figures.

Between 75% and 80% of people who went to the store left with at least one bag in hand. In a typical mall, this rate varies between 15% and 30%.

OPERATION NARCISSUS

The beginning of the empire’s fall began 11 years ago, on July 13, 2005. A mega-operation by the Federal Police, in partnership with the IRS, led to the arrest of Tranchesi and his partners, all suspected of irregular importation through embezzlement crimes. and tax evasion. The scheme would use shell companies to under-invoice imports in order to evade taxes.

In it, Daslu was responsible for negotiating the purchase of luxury goods abroad and forwarding them to the importer who falsified documents to under-invoice the goods, thus paying lower taxes.

During the process, Tranchesi’s defense stated that she was not responsible for the store’s financial and administrative matters, and therefore was unaware of the fraud.

In 2009, Tranchesi was sentenced by Judge Maria Isabel de Praro, of the 2nd Federal Court of Justice, in Guarulhos, to serve 94.5 years in prison for the crimes of conspiracy, attempted and accomplished embezzlement and misrepresentation.

Roberto Fakhouri Júnior (from the Kinsberg importer), André Beukers (Kinsberg), Rodrigo Nardy Figueiredo (Todos os Santos) and Christian Polo (By (Brazil), in addition to Celso de Lima, Tranchesi’s brother, were also convicted in the action.

At the time, Tranchesi was facing lung cancer and filed an appeal to appeal the sentence. She was arrested on the day of the conviction but was released a day later. Tranchesi died in 2012 from cancer. She was responsible for the processes in freedom.

With a debt close to maturity of R$ 80 million, plus the pending with the Federal Revenue, estimated at R$ 500 million, the former luxury empire had its judicial recovery plan approved by the court in 2011, which provided for the sale of the brand .

The only interested party was the company Leap Investments, which acquired the brand for the symbolic value of R$ 1,000 and committed to invest R$ 65 million in the company. The sale did not include the pending with the Revenue.

Four years after the acquisition, Leap was denounced by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) for seven crimes against the financial system, fraudulent operations in the capital market, money laundering, conspiracy and criminal organization and disobedience to a court order.

Its headquarters were located in Bermuda. According to the indictment, the businessmen caused losses of more than R$ 2.5 billion to the securities market and to investors with fraudulent operations in the launch of assets.

In February 2016, the majority share (52%) ended up being bought by a group of investors led by Bahian businessman Crezo Suerdieck, who specializes in acquiring companies in various sectors in difficulty. An expansion plan for the brand was then announced, based on the franchise model.

In the year of the eviction order at the JK mall, Daslu still had four stores in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ribeirão Preto.