The São Paulo Court authorized the release of Sidney Oliveira, owner of Ultrafarma, and Mário Otávio Gomes, Fast Shop executive, after request from the São Paulo State Public Prosecutor (MP-SP). Both were temporarily arrested on Tuesday (12) in an operation to dismantle a corruption scheme involving tax auditors of the São Paulo Secretariat of Finance and Planning (Sefaz-SP).
In addition to Sidney and Gomes, Operation Icarus of the Public Prosecution Service arrested tax auditors Arthur Gomes da Silva Neto and Marcelo de Almeida Gouveia. Public servants would have received bribes in exchange for the granting of tax benefits to retail companies.
“The court extended the arrest of tax auditor Arthur Gomes da Silva Neto, and Sidney and Mario were released, as requested by MP-SP. The supervisor Marcelo de Almeida Gouveia will remain in prison,” the prosecutor said in a statement.
The operation was triggered by the Special Action Group on the Suppression of Economic Crimes, with the support of the Military Police. The starting point of the investigation was the breach of bank and tax secrecy of Smart Tax, a tax consulting firm, registered on behalf of Kimio Mizukami da Silva, Arthur’s mother.
In addition to a dizzying equity increase, the company does not have registered employees and its only customer was the fast shop. For the Public Prosecution Service, Smart Tax is a facade company created exclusively to operationalize the transfer of bribes to tax auditors.
After searches, seizures and preventive arrests, the court will verify if there are other auditors involved in corruption and if there are more companies in the scheme. Prosecutors will also meet with the Secretariat of Finance to collect a review of internal procedures.
Beatriz Hadler under the supervision of Thiago San.
