Brazilian Federal Police and the FBI Investigative Branch of Banestado in New York

Edition No. 1744 of the weekly magazine “ISTOE” published in the first week of March that the Brazilian Federal Police and the FBI entered into an agreement to investigate the money which transited accounts of the branch of Banestado in New York. Banestado is originally a Brazil Bank, headquartered in Curitiba. Branches of Banestado in southern Brazil are also being investigated by the Federal Police for suspicion of operating accounts of “dollar dealers”, or laundering money and committing crimes of tax dodging and funds evasion. According to the magazine, the investigation will start with the account of June International, an offshore company which transited more than U.S. $650 million between 1996 and 1997. Preliminary investigations have produced evidence -that the account “Tucano” and Chase in new York received from June Intl. a good part of the U.S.$56 million which it operated in the same period. Among the documents seized by the FBI at the branch of Banestado in New York, were receipts of substantial charitable donations made by American companies. Although the donations were duly posted on their balance sheets, the money had been driven to tax havens and never entered the cash of the charity entities which were supposedly benefitted with the donations.