Operação Distrato: company failed to pay R$72 million in ICMS in one of the biggest cases of fraud with false credits, say auditors

Operation against R$3.8 billion in ICMS fraud targets economic groups with lawyers in SP and PR Tax auditors from the Finance Department revealed this Tuesday (15) one of the biggest cases identified in the investigation into the sale of false ICMS credits. According to them, a company that was supposed to collect around R$80 million in tax only paid approximately R$8 million to the state after using tax credits considered irregular. The company's identity was kept confidential. This Wednesday, the Interinstitutional Asset Recovery Committee (CIRA/SP) launched Operation Distrato to investigate an organization suspected of selling false ICMS credits to unduly reduce the tax owed to the state. According to authorities, the scheme would have caused an estimated loss of R$3.8 billion to public coffers. In total, 38 search and seizure warrants were executed in São Paulo, Campinas, Jundiaí, Ribeirão Preto, Londrina (PR) and Cambé (PR). With more than 1.4 million followers on Instagram alone, lawyer Nelson Wilians is one of the targets of the operation. ? Law firms and consultancies approached large companies offering "tax planning" services. The promise was to reduce ICMS through the purchase of tax credits that supposedly originated from bankrupt companies, expropriations or old court decisions. To give the appearance of legality to the business, those investigated presented falsified documents, simulated the approval of credits by the Finance Department and even used extras in video conferences to pretend to be tax auditors. "In some cases they held meetings with these companies via videoconference and placed an extra in that video to simulate that this extra was a tax auditor. We have several reports of this situation", said tax auditor Ronaldo Mello Nogueira. Authorities from the government of SP, the Civil Police, the Finance Department of SP and the Public Ministry are holding a press conference this Wednesday (15) on the so-called 'Operation Distrato', on fraud in the ICMS in São Paulo. Reproduction/TV Globo According to him, the investigation began in September 2025, after the Finance Department identified, through data crossing, that several companies began to collect amounts much lower than those previously paid. At the same time, some taxpayers spontaneously sought out the agency to report that they had been approached by offices offering to purchase ICMS credits. Nogueira explained that the transfer of credits of this type can only occur with authorization from the Treasury Department. Despite this, those investigated falsified orders to make it appear that the operations had been approved by the Tax Authorities. According to the auditors, the scheme did not end when the companies were fined by the Treasury. The offices once again sought out clients by offering a new service: the supposed payment of fines imposed by the tax authorities. SP government operation targets scheme that would have evaded R$3.8 billion in tax credits Disclosure/SP Finance Secretariat To convince companies, they presented false screens stating that the infraction notices had been paid and even guarantee insurance policies, which supposedly would cover possible losses if the operation was questioned. According to the investigation, both payment and insurance receipts were also false. "Not satisfied, these offices contacted the companies presenting false payment screens, saying that the infraction notices were being paid by these offices, when the payment had not even been made," stated Nogueira. During the press conference, the auditor said that there are offices carrying out scams worth up to R$100 million per month and stated that Operation Distrato represents just one stage of the investigations. Commenting on the responsibility of the companies that joined the operations, Nogueira stated that some may have been deceived, but others took advantage of the opportunity to illegally reduce tax payments. "Who buys a winning Mega-Sena ticket for a thousand reais? At the very least, the businessman who starts making large credit purchases should check, at least with his legal department, the legality of this operation." CIRA reported that the investigations seek precisely to differentiate companies that knowingly participated in the scheme from those that may have been victims of fraud. To date, the Treasury Department has opened 874 Fiscal Service Orders to analyze around 9,960 suspicious entries, involving more than 850 companies. Of these, 752 have already been charged. MORE