Sao Paolo: Brazilian police arrested 11 people Thursday alleged to be part of a ring that laundered up to a billion dollars through phony trade deals with Venezuela, among other schemes.
The arrests were made in raids in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Parana in an operation dubbed "Puerto Victoria," federal police said.
Police estimate that the network laundered three billion reals, or about $1 billion at current exchange rates, over a three-year period.
The Brazilian investigation was prompted by a US query in 2014 about a Brazilian linked to a criminal organisation operating in Brazil, the United States, Japan, Britain and Venezuela.
Fictitious trade deals
The federal police alleged that among other schemes, the group would "illegally withdraw hard currency from Venezuela through fictitious imports from Brazilian companies whose sole objective was the movement of money."
The value of the goods was inflated by up to 5,000 percent to justify hard currency transfers from Venezuela, which has strict currency controls.
The group would then make loans or fake import orders to send the money to Hong Kong, where it was distributed worldwide, according to the police.
