Federal Public Prosecutor's Office indicts 11 for fraud at Banco do Nordeste.
According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the gang lured low-income individuals to meetings, claiming it was an agricultural project financed by the Bank of the Northeast of Brazil (BNB); they requested their documents and asked them to sign various papers, including false declarations that they occupied land supposedly belonging to the state of Bahia, and requests for the donation of said land, as if they were small rural producers.
Bahia 247 - The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office of Bahia (MPF/BA) has filed charges against 11 people for "fraudulently obtaining" financing from the Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), in Paulo Afonso/BA, a city 450km from Salvador. The financed amounts total R$ 150, originating from the Constitutional Fund for Financing the Northeast, through the Program to Support Rural Development in the Northeast.
The gang behind the fraud consisted of three of the defendants: Delmiro Alves de Matos, a former city councilor known as Delmiro do Bode; Fernando Manoel da Silva, his former advisor, known as Danda; and Roberto Nunes, an agricultural technician and geographer. Together, they recruited residents of the rural area of Paulo Afonso to pose as small rural producers, with the aim of obtaining illegal financing from the BNB (Banco do Nordeste).
According to the complaint, authored by federal prosecutor André Batista Neves, the gang lured low-income individuals to meetings under the pretense of an agricultural project. They requested their documents and asked them to sign various papers, including false declarations that they occupied land supposedly belonging to the State of Bahia, and requests for the donation of said land, as if they were small rural producers.
Subsequently, the defendants Henrique Carlos Rabelo Nonato and Kleber Queiroz do Bomfim – land surveyors and employees of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Irrigation and Agrarian Reform of the State of Bahia – prepared false documents, attesting that the lands supposedly occupied were vacant and belonged to the State.
With this, the supposed rural producers received land donation titles. These documents – referring to lands that did not actually exist – were then given as mortgage collateral to the BNB (Banco do Nordeste) when applying for the loan.
Since the loans were granted in two or more installments, after the first payment was released, other fraudulent documents were created. Among them were technical inspection reports, signed by Roberto Nunes, which falsely attested that the properties were being used for their intended purpose, which was crucial for the release of the remaining funds.
Through these frauds, the financing was obtained by the alleged rural workers, who withdrew the amounts from the BNB (Banco do Nordeste), delivered them to Delmiro do Bode, and received 2 reais for the criminal operation. Of the six cases initially investigated by the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor's Office), which total 150 reais illicitly appropriated by the defendants, 12 reais were paid to the "front men".