A Brazilian court has imposed a historic 128-year jail term on the chief orchestrator of the money laundering operation linked to the Braiscompany cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. The fraudulent scheme, which commenced in June 2018 and ended with its demise in early 2023, swindled over 20,000 investors of approximately 1.11 billion reais ($190 million).
The court found Joel Ferreira de Souza guilty of using fictitious corporations and surrogate accounts to cleanse the ill-gotten gains from the Braiscompany swindle. This sentence is one of the longest ever dealt in Brazil for financial misconduct.
His offspring, Victor Augusto Veronez de Souza, was given a 15-year jail term for his part in the scheme. Notably, Gesana Rayane Silva, a top broker, was sentenced to 27 years and 10 months, on top of earlier convictions, totaling her jail term to over 40 years, as per regional media sources. However, Mizael Moreira Silva and Clélio Fernando Cabral do Ó were exonerated of money laundering charges due to lack of substantial evidence.
Antônio “Neto” Ais and Fabrícia Farias Campos, the founders of Braiscompany and a married couple, were sentenced in February 2024 to 88 years and 7 months and 61 years and 11 months, respectively. After spending more than a year evading law enforcement, they were finally captured in Argentina. Currently, they are under house arrest awaiting extradition to Brazil.
Braiscompany lured investors with an 8% monthly return on cryptocurrency that was “locked” with the firm for a year. Despite its aggressive client recruitment strategies and claims of prominent crypto affiliations, Braiscompany started defaulting on payments in 2022 and by January 2023, disbursements had almost entirely ceased.
In response, Brazil’s federal law enforcement initiated a nationwide operation in February 2023, dubbed Operation Halving. This led to a raid on the company’s offices and the subsequent flight of its founders. The recent sentencing against de Souza is from a distinct lawsuit focusing on Braiscompany’s money laundering activity.
Disclaimer: The Block is an autonomous media source providing news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a primary investor in The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other businesses within the crypto realm. Crypto exchange Bitget is a major LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to function independently to provide unbiased, significant, and timely data about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures. © 2025 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
