May 31, 2016
Brazil’s federal police accused Banco Bradesco SA BBDC4.SA Chief Executive Officer Luiz Carlos Trabuco and two senior executives on Tuesday of plotting to avoid a 3 billion-real ($828 million) tax fine, the latest episode of alleged white-collar crime in Latin America’s largest economy.
The office of Brazil’s Prosecutor-General said that a police report seeking formal charges against Trabuco and the executives was received earlier on Tuesday. A source briefed on the matter said Chief Financial Officer Luiz Carlos Angelotti and Senior Vice President Domingos de Abreu were also named in the report.
The tax probe, known in Brazil as “Operation Zealot,” alleges that some of Brazil’s largest companies bribed members of the CARF, a Finance Ministry body that hears appeals on tax disputes, to get favorable rulings that reduced or waived the amounts owed.
The cases under investigation came before the CARF board between 2005 and 2013. The Zealot probe is worsening the political climate as a larger corruption scandal known as “Operation Car Wash” and a two-year-long recession are hampering the country.