Hundreds of Autibank customers throughout Brazil claim that they have suffered losses of thousands of reais due to promises that would not have been fulfilled by the company and its CEO, Yuri Medeiros.
Autibank, which sold itself to potential customers as a bank, although it is not a BC-regulated financial institution, rose to prominence on social media in the middle of last year, sponsoring concerts by famous artists such as Gusttavo Lima. , Leonardo and Bell Marques.
The scheme, according to clients and the Public Ministry of Ceará, which filed a complaint last year, consisted of guiding people to take out payroll or personal loans at traditional financial institutions and fully transfer these amounts to Autibank.
The alleged bank promised to guarantee the repayment of the debt, plus a rate of return that usually started at around 1% per month, but could reach up to 4.5% monthly, according to reports and BOs (incident reports) registered. against the company.
The promised return would be through investments in the Stock Exchange, in international funds and in government bonds —according to clients, this was the information provided by Autibank itself.
Most of the people accusing the company are retirees or federal civil servants, with the potential to borrow large amounts. According to them, Autibank employees kept in contact by phone offering the “investment”, including visits to people’s homes and invitations to visit the company’s headquarters in the city.
In the complaint, the Ceará Prosecutor’s Office says that the company promised to return 10% of the value, in some installments, in addition to paying off the loans.
At the Ceará Court of Justice, Medeiros is a defendant in a lawsuit for the formation of a criminal organization and embezzlement.
Executive says he negotiates resources with Arab fund
In an interview given to sheet on Wednesday (16), Yuri Medeiros recognizes that Autibank has been going through a series of financial difficulties, but says he is looking for solutions to be able to honor the commitments made with customers.
“We have strong indications that everything will be resolved as soon as possible”, says Medeiros, who points out the creation of fake websites that would have been passed by Autibank and the internal compliance processes (checking compliance with rules) among the reasons for the problems financial.
He says he expects to be able to resolve all pending issues with customers and pay employees with wages in arrears by the end of this month.
Medeiros claims to be in negotiations with a fund from the United Arab Emirates to resume operations at Autibank, which is currently paralyzed in all markets where it operates in the country.
He also says that he has suffered a series of threats from clients, but that he has not fled the country and that he remains at the disposal of Justice to provide the necessary clarifications.
The CEO of Autibank, who claims to have named the company in honor of his son who has autism, did not want to detail the investments made by the company that would make it possible to deliver the promised return to customers. “At the right time, we will clarify everything to customers and employees”, says Medeiros, who claims not to go into details about the operation on the recommendation of his lawyers.
“We never need to hit anyone or do anything like that to conquer the market. On the contrary, we cause envy in people in the segment”, he says.
The company created an image similar to that of a bank
On its website, Autibank presents itself as a 100% free digital account. “We unite the security and tradition of physical agencies with the innovation and technology of digital accounts”, says the text.
The page also features images of alleged Autibank cards with the Elo brand logo, controlled by Banco do Brasil, Caixa and Bradesco. Elo claims to have no commercial agreement with Autibank: “No Elo-branded card was issued by this company”, and says it has not authorized the use of its brand on websites, social networks or any advertising materials of the institution.
According to the complaint by the Public Ministry of Ceará, Autibank Pagamentos “is a company registered with CNPJ 36.276.015/0001-24, owned by the accused Yuri Medeiros, which is neither a bank nor a financial institution, so much so that there is no authorization from the Central Bank to function as such”.
With the start of activities in mid-2019 in Rio de Janeiro, the company that claims to operate in the financial services sector even opened branches in ten capitals, with one of the headquarters on Avenida 9 de Julho, in an upscale region of São Paulo.
The objective, according to Moacyr Lopes Junior, a lawyer who defends clients who claim to have been harmed by Autibank, was to create an image of good repute.
People who have gone to the address in the capital of São Paulo in search of information about the money invested, however, cannot find anyone else at the place to provide any type of clarification.
“Reports indicate that Autibank generally complied with the obligations assumed in the first months after signing the contracts, but that payments, as well as contacts with company employees, ceased shortly afterwards”, says the lawyer.
Federal public servants say they are the target of a coup
A federal public servant from Paraná who prefers not to be identified says he transferred around R$ 70,000 to Autibank last year, with the expectation of receiving a monthly income of around 1.7%.
According to him, the yield offered was relatively low and the offer seemed quite fair, which led him to believe in the company. Of the amount contributed, the company returned less than 20% of the total, with increasing delays from the end of 2021, until the total interruption of payments this year, he says.
A civil servant who lives in São Paulo says that he and his partner made transfers to Autibank and group companies in the middle of last year that totaled approximately R$ 670,000, between loans and savings that had been gathered by the couple.
They say that they were attracted by the concerts of famous artists and by the opening of agencies in capitals, and they did not suspect the promise of income around 2% per month. About a third of the amount was paid off, but since the end of January there has been no payment from the company, they say.
In September 2021, Autibank became a member of Febracon (Brazilian Federation of Banking Correspondents), but in December the company was discredited.
President of the federation, Armando Paes Filho says that at no time did Autibank present documents proving the company’s relationship as a banking correspondent with any financial institution.
“Autibank and Yuri Medeiros used the fact that the company is an affiliate of Febracon to maintain a serious background, as they also did with the promotion of the singers’ lives”, says the leader. “Yuri acts in bad faith and hit the market”, adds Paes Filho.
In the complaint filed in Ceará, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also describes the creation of a scenario to deceive customers, with negotiations carried out in offices presented as Autibank agencies – “a company that is not a bank, but appears to be.”
“This company was used only to give the appearance of legality to the business, given that the contracts were not made in its name, but in that of other companies”, points out the MP.
Medeiros claims that Autibank was, in his view, wrongly linked to the process by the Public Ministry. He says that a former employee of the company who previously worked at the consultancy Lugus, also under investigation by the MP, is the only relationship between Autibank and himself with the ongoing investigation.
In the complaint, however, the MP points out that Lugus, Forx Consultoria and Autibank were part of the same criminal group, with very similar approaches and persuasions, in addition to operating at the same address in Fortaleza.
“Employees who had nothing to do with the investigation ended up being arrested, which is totally regrettable from my point of view”, says Medeiros. “It is up to the courts to determine what is right or wrong”, adds the CEO of Autibank.
“A financial pyramid is based on an apparent success story, with people who say they are getting back the amount invested, until the money gradually stops arriving”, says Luciano Régis, a lawyer who works in Cabo Frio, Rio de Janeiro. de Janeiro, and which defends more than a dozen customers who claim to have been harmed by Autibank.
He emphasizes the importance of doing a detailed research on the history of the company and the people involved before making any financial decision that could compromise personal income and family budget.
“The great challenge now is to locate the assets of Yuri Medeiros and Autibank so we can try to recover the amounts owed to clients”, says the lawyer, who also works in the defense of clients injured by Glaidson Acácio, known as the “bitcoin pharaoh”.
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