New Federal Police operation targets another of Cabral's associates.

Rio 247 - The Federal Police are conducting another operation this Thursday morning, a spin-off from Operations Calicute and Eficiência, which led to the arrest of former governor Sérgio Cabral and businessman Eike Batista. One of the targets of the operation is tax agent Ary Ferreira da Costa Filho, from the state Revenue Service, known as "Sombra". A warrant for his preventive arrest has been issued. Police are at his home, in a luxury building in Barra da Tijuca, and are also conducting search and seizure operations at eight other addresses.

The information is from report by Chico Otávio in O Globo.

"At least three properties and one company link tax agent Ary Ferreira da Costa Filho to the businessmen favored by the scheme of benefits and tax shielding set up by the couple Sérgio Cabral and Adriana Ancelmo."

Relatives of Ary, including the tax agent, occupy three apartments on Avenida Lúcio Costa, in Barra, belonging to companies linked to businessman Adriano Monteiro Martins, head of the clan that runs a network of car dealerships in Rio. The task force also found seven other properties linked to Ary. 

The Calicute complaint was filed with the courts on December 5th. The following day, Ary resigned from his position as special advisor to Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão's office. He had held the position since the beginning of his friend Sergio Cabral's administration in 2007, only remaining outside Guanabara Palace for three months (from July 6th to October 4th, 2010, when he resigned for the first time, only to be reappointed shortly after).

Ary entered public service in 1980 (probably to work on the "your payment booklet is worth millions" program, without having taken a public examination). In 1987, he was promoted to the position of tax agent.

The defense for the company Creações, which had been mentioned in this article and was even targeted by Operation Calicute, but was not included in the sentence, sent the following clarification to 247:

CREACAO OPCAO is a family-owned textile company with over forty years in the market and no connection whatsoever with public administration. The company conducts its business with the utmost integrity and respect for its employees, collaborators, and public and regulatory institutions, and is today a benchmark in the municipality of Petrópolis, where, in addition to providing hundreds of direct and indirect jobs to the local population, it also provides significant social services, thus rejecting any involvement in the reported events.

Regarding the contract with the company OBJETIVA GESTÃO E COMUNICAÇÃO ESTRATÉGICA, belonging to former Governor SERGIO CABRAL, this occurred more than a year after he no longer held any public office, with the normal provision of services and proven results. Therefore, this business had no illicit connection, and it is certain that OBJETIVA maintained contracts of the same type with many other companies.

Regarding the contract with the company TRANSEXPERT – VIGILÂNCIA E TRANSPORTE DE VALORES LTDA, the regularity and legality of the funds in custody, originating from sales collected in the various stores it maintains in Rio de Janeiro shopping malls, was also demonstrated. These funds were also collected by other security companies in the same manner, since the company OPÇÃO worked with several security transport companies, with TRANSEXPERT being only one of them. And all of this was backed by contracts and within market regulations.

All of the above was duly clarified to the FEDERAL POLICE, through testimony and attached documents, and for this reason the businessman GUSTAVO MOHAMMAD was neither denounced nor indicted by the Federal Police, in the so-called Operation CALICUTE or any other.

Two audits were conducted by a specialized and reputable company in the market, LMPG AUDITORES E CONSULTORES, which attested to the regularity and legality of the business dealings with both companies, TRANSEXPERT and OBJETIVA.

Attached to this inquiry are our petition clarifying the facts presented to the Federal Police, the Federal Police Final Report, the indictment and recent sentence of Operation CALICUTE, as well as negative certificates from the Federal Police and the Federal Court, both showing no record, demonstrating that GUSTAVO MOHAMMAD was not indicted, charged, or even mentioned in the final sentence already issued. Any news that may arise is untrue and causes serious damage to the image and unblemished reputation of the company and its partners.

That,

Carlo Huberth Luchione
Attorney, OAB/RJ 47.698