"Yanomami illegal gold scheme involves millionaire companies accused of money laundering in Pará", 03 February 2023

...Mining on Yanomami Indigenous Land involves thousands of people...[W]ho profits most from this crime are companies with million-dollar turnovers and head offices in prime neighbourhoods of São Paulo...

...These are the so-called DTVMs (Distribuidora de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários), companies in the financial system that are authorised to buy the metal in Brazil... At least three of these intermediaries - Ourominas, FD'Gold and Carol - appear in the investigations about the mining in TI...

...[A]n investigation by Repórter Brasil shows that these companies or their executives face at least seven lawsuits in the federal courts for environmental crimes or money laundering related to illegal mining in the Amazon... None of these lawsuits were judged, and the companies continue to operate...

...The transparency of the gold chain is so precarious that ore illegally extracted from Brazilian indigenous lands may end up in jewellery or electronic filaments of mobile phones, computers and cameras.

...A study conducted by Escolhas Institute showed that the volume of illegal gold traded in Brazil between 2015 and 2020 could reach 229 tons, which represents half of the national production in the period. A third of this irregular gold was bought by just five DTVMs - among them FD'Gold, Ourominas and Carol.

...[T]wo Federal Police investigations obtained by the report in 2021 revealed invoices and testimonies indicating that these three DTVMs acquired the metal from garimpeiros or middlemen. The company most often mentioned by the miners targeted in the operations is Ourominas. One of its partners, Aquiles Pereira Salerno Júnior, was accused by the MPF-RR, in 2017, of concealing evidence that would be useful to the investigation (the case is in the Federal Court in the state and has not yet been judged).

...[A]...FD'Gold and Carol DTVM...are responding to a lawsuit in Pará, accused of environmental damage and for laundering 1.4 ton and 1.9 ton of gold respectively...

Recently, the president of FD'Gold made the news when he was arrested in the Federal Police's Aerogold operation, for suspected involvement in laundering illegal gold acquired from clandestine rafts operating on the rivers of the Amazon...

(Translated by the Resource Centre)