The Federal Courts are preparing for a series of unprecedented trials involving the “gold barons” accused of leading a scheme that moved more than R$10 billion and funneled approximately 20 tonnes of clandestine ore extracted from the Amazon. The global web dismantled by the Federal Police connected the pillaging of indigenous lands and conservation units in Northern Brazil to the vaults of refineries in Switzerland and the jewelry hub of Arezzo, Italy, according to documents obtained exclusively by O Globo.
O Globo traveled to Manaus, the epicenter of the investigations, to understand how authorities retraced the “gold route” from the Amazon to the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, and managed to gather the extensive body of evidence accumulated by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF). Based on investigations from Operations Sisaque, Ricezione, and Emboabas, it was possible to map the architecture of a unique and systemic scheme for the usurpation of federal assets and money laundering.
The group’s logistical machinery collapsed following two strategic interceptions at Brazilian airport tarmacs. In January 2020, Federal Police and Federal Revenue agents detained businessman Brubeyk Garcia Nascimento at Manaus International Airport alongside American buyers Frank Giannuzzi and Steven Albert Bellino, as the trio attempted to board a flight to New York with 35 kilograms of raw gold backed by fraudulent invoices.
Illegal mining inside the Munduruku Indigenous Territory (TI), in Pará
Reproduction/PF
A year and a half later, in August 2021, the Federal Police intercepted an executive jet at Campo de Marte Airport in São Paulo, seizing another 52 kilograms of gold bullion held by pilots Guilherme Crepaldi Silva and Muhammad Diarra Ndiaye — ore that was allegedly to be funneled through companies owned by Diego and Daniel de Mello toward the European market.
Gold bars on a table, in an image extracted from a conversation related to the negotiation between Brubeyk Garcia Nascimento and Frank Gianuzzi, in January 2020.
Reproduction/PF
From these two seizures, the Federal Police pieced together the puzzle of an ecosystem that operated through linked stages, structured to transform metal torn from indigenous lands and conservation units into an apparently clean commodity, traded on stock exchanges, and sold to refineries, high-tech industries, and jewelry stores abroad.
According to the investigations, the first link in the chain was predatory and unlicensed extraction in strictly protected areas and protected territories, such as the Munduruku, Kayapó, and Yanomami Indigenous Lands, as well as Conservation Units in Pará and Roraima. Financed by regional operators like Mr. Isaac Fuhrmann Cula in the Tapajós River hub, the activity devastated the biome with excavators and released tonnes of mercury into rivers to aggregate the raw metal.
River contaminated by illegal mining in the Yanomami indigenous territory, in Roraima
Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil/ 02/03/2023
With the raw material in hand, one of the investigated groups employed fraudulent engineering to forge a legal origin. In one of the Federal Police operations, Sisaque, the investigation mapped two primary paths: the route through Securities Brokerage Firms (DTVMs), coordinated by figures such as Mr. Dirceu Frederico Sobrinho, former president of the National Gold Association (Anoro), who exploited the legal loophole of “presumption of good faith” to register illicit gold as if it originated from regular mines; and the route of forged technical reports, structured in Amazonas by Mr. Brubeyk Garcia Nascimento (owner of the BAMC laboratory) in partnership with the Austrian Mr. Werner Rydl, both investigated in Operation Emboabas.
The group issued fraudulent invoices supported by a fictitious R$26 billion fortune claimed by Mr. Rydl, disguising the forest ore under the label of “recycled gold or scrap.”
Gold bars accompanied by tags with information on weight, purity, and value, in a photograph related to the investigated negotiations
Reproduction/PF
Once laundered on paper, the gold was prepared to cross the country. The logistics utilized private executive aviation, using airfields and hangars in the Southeast as strategic waypoints before shipment abroad, according to the investigations and the MPF’s indictment. Already consolidated and covered by separate invoices, the product entered the official banking system. Investigations such as Operation Sisaque uncovered the circulation of more than R$4 billion in fraudulent invoices through shell companies, injecting illegal mining proceeds directly into the formal economy.
Financial engineering and foreign exchange contracts were finalized in New York through entities such as OroReal LLC — managed by Mr. Isaac Fuhrmann Cula — with payments in dollars invested by Bank of America. The logistics connected Amazonian rivers directly to the hub of Arezzo, Italy, where the bullion was invoiced to the refinery Italpreziosi SPA, while another cargo of the metal was sent for custody in the vaults of Loomis Schweiz AG in Zurich, the documents show.
Illegal mining in the Kayapó Indigenous Territory in the Amazon
Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace
Revealed by Operations Emboabas and Ricezione, the international gold route used everything from “mules” on commercial flights to New York to shipments invoiced as “scrap” to Italy, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. At the final destination, the forest metal reappeared refined in luxury jewelry stores, investment funds, and the microcircuits of servers and smartphones from Big Tech companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla.
To dismantle defense arguments that the exported ore came from recycling or authorized deposits, the Federal Court authorized the use of advanced analytical chemistry forensics. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry analysis performed by the Federal Police on 43 seized bars revealed discrepant purity levels, ranging between 80.56% and 95.95%. This variation proved that the metal resulted from artisanal smelting carried out at multiple unauthorized clandestine mines, rather than an industrial refining process.
Federal Prosecutor Sofia Freitas da Silva, responsible for part of the investigated cases, explains that new requirements in the financial system forced a radical shift in the criminal modus operandi.
Gold bars seized and organized into four pouches, subjected to weighing. The scales record 11.02 kg, 11.09 kg, 4.86 kg, and 8.08 kg, respectively, totaling 35.05 kg.
Reproduction/PF
– Until 2023, the traditional route for illicit gold left the North for São Paulo, supported by false guides and invoices — such as metal extracted from Yanomami Indigenous Land that was disguised as coming from regular mines in Itaituba (Pará) to be formally exported from the Southeast. Since 2023, with the end of the legal presumption of good faith in declarations of origin, the mandatory Electronic Invoice, and new Central Bank controls against mining-related laundering, the strategy has changed – she told O Globo.
Ms. Silva says that currently, the criminal network has begun to funnel raw metal without any documentation to Boa Vista, aiming for clandestine exit through the northern border (Venezuela and Guyana). According to the prosecutor, significant seizures in Roraima between late 2024 and late 2025 — totaling batches of 100 kg, 70 kg, and 50 kg coming from Pará and Amazonas — confirm the consolidation of this new international smuggling route. She states that gold continues to leave the country “by the tonne,” without exaggeration.
Gold bars accompanied by tags with identification information and values recorded in the investigation documents
Reproduction/PF
For Greenpeace senior researcher Nilo D´Avila, the greatest existing flaw in controlling gold exports in Brazil is the due diligence system based entirely on paperwork and self-declarations.
– Buying companies — whether primary buyers or large consumers — always use the excuse that all papers and authorizations were correct. A general reform of the due diligence system, where process information is cross-referenced with satellite imagery, along with metrics to verify anomalous operations (overproduction) or ghost operations, is the only way to make inspection possible and ensure punishment for dishonest buyers. All the information to perform this type of analysis is available, accessible, and, incredibly, free of charge. It is unbelievable, therefore, that this type of analysis is not being done – he states.
The Federal Court will judge approximately 40 defendants investigated in the three operations. The charges include mineral usurpation, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, transnational criminal organization, and illegal management of a financial institution. In addition to prison sentences, the MPF is seeking more than R$10.6 billion in reparations for asset usurpation, environmental damage, collective moral damages, and ethnic-cultural impacts on indigenous lands.
In a statement, Mr. Brubeyk do Nascimento denied participation in any gold laundering scheme and claimed he acted as a good-faith buyer, acquiring the metal at market prices. He argues that the material underwent technical analysis accredited by the Federal Revenue and reiterates that the facts are being clarified in court. The other defendants and foreign companies did not comment by the time of publication. (Contribution by Jônatas Levi)
The series “Invisible Gold” — about how minerals illegally extracted from the Amazon supply the global technology chain and why no one can track them — is supported by the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).