PGR files calculation on offshore Guedes and Campos Neto

The PGR (Attorney General’s Office) filed the preliminary investigation on offshore companies (companies in tax havens) linked to the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and the President of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto.

For the Prosecutor’s Office, there is no reason to carry out an investigation because “neither the criminal offense nor any suitable indication of its existence has been demonstrated”.

Dated this Tuesday (30th), the manifestation was signed by the Attorney General of the Republic Aldo de Campos Costa, who works in aid of the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras.

The preliminary calculation of the PGR was initiated in October after the publication of the Pandora Papers series.

Reports revealed that the holder of the Economy had held US$9.5 million in an offshore in the British Virgin Islands since 2014. Campos Neto, in turn, was appointed as the owner of three offshores, in the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.

“Both the Minister of Economy and the President of the Central Bank of Brazil demonstrated in these pieces of information that the assets and values ​​they own in each of the offshores mentioned in the reports relating to the Pandora Papers were informed to the competent authority in terms of form, limits and conditions established by the governing legislation,” said Costa.

In order to reach the conclusion that it did not identify irregularities in the case, the Attorneys Office evaluated information that had been requested from the two Executive authorities.

Guedes said that “all declarations required by Brazilian law were observed” and that “year after year” he informed the Central Bank and the Federal Revenue of his shareholding in Dreadnoughts International Group Limited, the name of the company linked to the minister abroad.

He argued that he left offshore management in December 2018, when he started working in the transitional government of President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as “any and all decision-making process related to the company’s investments”.

He further argued that the amounts transferred abroad initially in 2014 remain there until now, and that since January 2019 to date, there would have been no withdrawals of amounts from the company in order to reenter them in Brazil.

According to the PGR, the president of the Central Bank of Brazil said “he has always declared the entirety of his assets to the Brazilian authorities”.

“He asserted that, upon taking office, he submitted to the Ethics Committee of the Presidency of the Republic a confidential statement of information, through which he informed his participation in the companies Peacock Assets, located in the Bahamas Community; ROCN Ltd. and Darling International Ventures, both headquartered in the British Virgin Islands,” said the District Attorney.

In the confidential statement of information, the representative of the Federal Public Ministry, Campos Neto, also said that he pledged “not to move these investments and not interfere in their management” while he was head of BC and that, in compliance with what was declared, he would not have done ” new contributions, investments or repatriated resources that are found abroad”.

In a statement, lawyers Ticiano Figueiredo and Pedro Ivo Velloso, appointed to act in the case on behalf of Guedes and Campos Neto, stated that the shedding of the case is the “recognition of everything that [a defesa] has been saying from the beginning: Paulo Guedes and Roberto Campos Neto, both in their public and private lives, have never committed any illicit act.”

“They always followed the strictest ethical and legal criteria, being guided by transparency with public bodies, reporting all information to the authorities, without any conflict of interest, omission or conflict with the DCI.”

The DCI is the Confidential Information Declaration, sent by the members of the highest level of the Executive to the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency of the Republic, containing information on the patrimonial or personal situation that could give rise to a conflict with the public interest.