Federal Police blunder could cost the government R$ 734 million.

247 - June 20, 2008: the date on which the Brazilian State, through ineptitude, bad faith, or a combination of both, destroyed a solid and rapidly growing company. On this day, Federal Police agents launched Operation Influenza, one of many flamboyant actions that have occurred in recent years. Armed with machine guns, Federal Police agents raided the offices of Agrenco, a company specializing in the trading of agricultural commodities, in Itajaí (SC) and São Paulo (SP). The owner, Antonio Iafelice, was arrested upon disembarking at Guarulhos International Airport and spent 15 days in jail.

The company's shares, which were traded on the BM&F Bovespa stock exchange, fell from a value exceeding 9 reais to just over a few cents. Of the 2,2 employees, almost all were laid off. Offices in more than 20 countries were closed. Forced into bankruptcy protection due to the arrest of all its directors, the company was taken over by the consulting firm Íntegra, which quickly sold valuable assets at bargain prices. A soybean processing plant in Mato Grosso was transferred to a private group that, three months later, resold 50% to Petrobras for 250% more.

However, in 2010, when the results of the Federal Police operation reached the Judiciary, the case was summarily dismissed. The reason? All the evidence was illegal. According to the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region, the offenders were the Federal Police agents who conducted the operation, since the evidence was "obtained as a result of the transgression, by public agents, of constitutional and legal rights and guarantees, whose conditioning effectiveness, within the framework of the Brazilian legal system, translates into a significant limitation of the legal order on the power of the State in relation to the citizen."

In 2008, when Operation Influenza was launched, the government promoted the narrative of a "republican" Federal Police force that neither protected allies nor persecuted adversaries. Showy actions were carried out against several companies, with the approval of ministers Márcio Thomaz Bastos and Tarso Genro.

The difference in the Agrenco case is that its owner, Antonio Iafelice, is the first to seek redress in court for the losses suffered. And, for him, producing evidence is even simpler, since the company had shares traded on the stock exchange. On June 19, 2008, his company was worth more than 700 million. A day later, its value had been reduced to nothing, due to an arbitrary action by the Federal Police, which did not even generate an indictment that could be accepted by the Judiciary.

To support his arguments, Iafelice hired the consulting firm Tendências, which meticulously described the losses suffered. In the complaint against the Union, signed by the Portugal Gouvêa law firm, it is concluded that the company was destroyed by the direct action of the State. "This is the legacy of Operation Influenza: the dismantling of a legitimate and stable organization, which had growth prospects, good financial health, and a good reputation in the market, and which, due to the exclusive action of the Federal Police, saw its credit collapse, was forced into judicial reorganization, and, without justification, had its accounting documents withheld, preventing it from fulfilling its obligations to the CVM (Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission) and, consequently, the suspension of its registration to operate in the securities market."

Former Bunge executive Antonio Iafelice was considered one of the leading agribusiness experts in Brazil. After his arrest, he began sleeping with the aid of medication and lost all his assets. "I was thrown from a Boeing," he told 247.