A doctor from Araçatuba, in the interior of São Paulo, earned R$ 800 million by becoming the “owner” of a part of the Amazon Rainforest. The information is from Fantástico, a TV Globo program.
According to the investigations, Ricardo Stoppe Júnior is one of the biggest land grabbers in the lands in the North of Brazil for at least 20 years, who profited R$ 180 million from carbon credit projects and another R$ 600 million from illegal logging.
To do this, according to the PF, he set up a document fraud scheme that made him the owner of more than 500 thousand hectares of the Amazon that, in fact, belong to the Union. However, by changing ownership through ‘past paper’ they and the partners were able to alter the official documents.
“There was fraud. The same person forged these two sheets and fraudulently inserted them in the books,” says João Pedro Alves Batista, a criminal expert from the Federal Police.
The PF analyzed two century-old rural property record books and proved that the doctor’s scheme set up criminal land appropriation processes, inserting false sheets in the record book.
The documentation appeared to be in accordance with the legislation because Ricardo rewarded with bribes the employees of the registry offices in the region and the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra).
According to the PF, Ricardo is not the legitimate owner of any piece of land in the Amazon. “They are all federal lands. It is a land grabbing that began around 2004,” said Federal Police agent Wilker Goular to Fantástico.
The PF claims that the group forged a negotiation to buy land from a family that owned a mansion that was the seat of the government of Amazonas and was very powerful in the past.
The lack of transparency in the land regularization processes and the participation of official bodies in the frauds made the investigations difficult.
Arrest and charges
Ricardo was arrested in June of this year, but the Federal Police (PF) continues search and seizure operations against him and his partners. In all, there are at least 50 members of the criminal scheme.
The leaders of the group, such as Ricardo Stoppe Júnior and his associates, will be indicted for deforestation, corruption of public servants, money laundering and criminal organization.
“We have already asked for blocking and we have blocked all the fraudulent registrations of this criminal organization and we will ask for the restitution of this patrimony to the Union,” says the delegate.
What the defenses say
Ricardo Stoppe Júnior’s lawyers say that the doctor is absolutely innocent, that technical and accounting expertise will clarify all the accusations and that his arrest is unnecessary, since he is a first-time offender, with no criminal record, according to a note sent to Fantástico.
INCRA declared full support for the Justice, which began to forward the dubious land titles for analysis by agencies, such as the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police, and that it is investigating the conduct of the employees involved, also in a statement.
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