From Deolane to Ryan: Understand how the crime of money laundering works

For decades, the fight against organized crime was focused on drug seizures, arrests of leaders and territorial occupation. Currently, however, Brazilian authorities have started to direct an increasing part of their investigations to another point: money.

In recent days, the topic has returned to the center of public debate following new high-profile cases involving nationally known names.

Influencer and lawyer Deolane Bezerra began to be investigated for alleged involvement in a money laundering structure attributed to the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), a hypothesis that supported the request for preventive detention and precautionary measures in Operation Vérnix.

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Singer MC Ryan SP and other influencers were arrested in April this year, during the Federal Police's Operation Narco Fluxo, which investigates a criminal organization suspected of laundering criminal money through the world of entertainment.

In both cases, investigations are still ongoing and the allegations must be analyzed by the Court, with the right to full defense.

The change accompanies a transformation in the very logic of action of criminal organizations.

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Money laundering is no longer just a consequence of crime and has started to occupy a central position within these structures. More than hiding resources, the objective became to allow them to circulate, be invested, return to the market and be used without arousing suspicion.

In Brazil, this mechanism is regulated by Law No. 9,613, of 1998, which defines it as a crime to hide or dissimulate the nature, origin, location, movement, disposition or ownership of goods, rights or values arising from a criminal offense. The expected penalty is 3 to 10 years in prison, in addition to a fine.

From a legal point of view, laundering cannot be confused with the crime that generated the money. It works as a subsequent step: transforming illegally obtained assets into apparently legitimate assets.

Although the expression "money laundering" has become popular, Brazilian legislation covers a broad set of conducts linked to the concealment and circulation of illicit assets, which is why part of the doctrine prefers to speak of "laundering crimes".

How illicit money enters the formal economy
Although each investigation has its own characteristics, the classic dynamics of laundering usually follow three stages.

The first is called placement, whose objective is usually to remove money from the environment in which it was generated and insert it into activities that justify its existence. Thus, it is the moment when the illegally obtained resource enters the economic system. This can occur through bank deposits, property acquisition, purchase of high-value goods, financial investments, companies, commercial businesses or other operations that take money away from its immediate origin.

Then comes concealment, in which the purpose is no longer to insert the money but to make it difficult to track. Successive transfers, circulation between accounts, division of values, use of intermediaries, business structures, international remittances and chained financial operations are mechanisms used to break the patrimonial trail and create layers between the resource and its origin.

In this way, instead of a single transaction of great value, the equity starts to go through different layers until it loses the appearance of being linked to its initial origin. It is precisely at this stage that investigations tend to resort more frequently to banking analysis, asset cross-checking, financial intelligence and tracking of business relationships.

Finally, integration occurs. At this stage, the heritage returns to the formal economy with the appearance of legality.

If the process is successful, the money no longer appears as an illicit resource, but as an apparent result of regular economic activity.

This can happen through the distribution of business profits, investments, asset appreciation, commercial revenue, equity participation, contracts, acquisition of assets or other operations that allow justifying the existence of that asset before the financial system and control bodies. It is at this stage that the resource stops appearing exceptional and starts to appear as a normal part of economic activity.

When the cycle is complete, the money continues to circulate, but far from the fact that gave rise to it. In other words, the process works as a process of "cleaning the appearance" of money.

First, the illegally obtained resource enters the economic system, for example, mixed with a company's revenue or transformed into assets. Then, it starts circulating between accounts, people or businesses to make it difficult for anyone to find out where it came from. In the end, this money reappears with the appearance of legitimate origin, as if it had been obtained through business activity, investment or regular income. The goal is not to make the money disappear, but to make it appear to have been earned legally.

What are the most used methods
The most well-known forms of washing tend to appear in different combinations.

Among them are:

- shell companies that mix legitimate income and illicit resources;
- companies created only formally;
- use of third parties to hide assets;
- fractionation of financial operations;
- purchase and sale of properties;
- overpriced import and export operations;
- use of insurance and financial instruments;
- successive electronic transfers;
- movement by legal entities and successive changes assets;
- mix between regular billing and resources without proven origin.

Since 2012, Brazilian law has expanded the scope of the crime.

Before, it was necessary for the assets to originate from certain specific crimes. Today, it is enough for the resources to come from any criminal offense, which has significantly expanded the scope of investigations.

New "laundering" characters
For a long time, the imaginary about money laundering was associated with discreet financial operators, money changers or companies with no apparent activity. Recent investigations, however, have begun to describe more sophisticated and dispersed structures.

Instead of keeping resources just outside the formal system, criminal organizations began to look for mechanisms capable of inserting assets directly into the regular economy, using companies, contracts, assets, bank circulation and figures with a high capacity for economic movement.

This change appears in recent investigations that stopped looking only at those who carry out crimes and began to focus attention on those who manage assets, organize financial flows or provide the appearance of legality to operations.

In the case of Operation Vérnix, researchers argue that people with consolidated economic activity and public exposure like Deolane Bezerra could function as points of asset integration.

In the case involving MC Ryan, the Federal Police states that the organization used a mechanism called compliance shield, in which artists and digital influencers used their public visibility and engagement on the internet to naturalize million-dollar transactions arising from illicit resources.

The investigative logic, in these cases, is based on the idea that modern criminal organizations depend less on the direct circulation of cash and more on the ability to move resources without interrupting their economic use. Therefore, companies, assets, contracts and financial relationships have started to occupy an increasing space in contemporary investigations into organized crime.

Other side
In a note, Deolane's defense spoke out on Thursday night (21).

Read in full:

"The technical defense of lawyer Deolane Bezerra Santos comes, with the utmost respect to the institutions of the Justice System and the Democratic Rule of Law, to provide the necessary clarifications on the events that resulted in her preventive arrest on today, 21.05.26: initially we emphasize her most absolute innocence, as well as that the facts will be duly clarified by her, at an opportune moment. For now and as due compliance, we consider them disproportionate the measures signed against Deolane and this defense panel will continue to cooperate technically with the Court to demonstrate the lawfulness of its activities as a lawyer that it is, fully trusting in the discernment, reasonableness and impartiality of the Judiciary".

On social media, the influencer's lawyer and sister, Daniele Bezerra, stated that Deolane's new arrest means persecution against the lawyer. See full note:

"Today, once again, they are trying to transform assumptions into truths and headlines into convictions. The arrest of Deolane Bezerra, on allegations of participation in a criminal organization, is born surrounded by lessons, narratives and persecutions that have been repeated for some time. Accusing is easy. It is difficult to prove. In Brazil, unfortunately, many times, one first exposes oneself, destroys one's image and condemns oneself in public opinion... and only then seeks evidence to support what has been done. And that is It is serious. It cannot be accepted that Justice is used as a spectacle, nor that people are treated as guilty before due legal process. Prison cannot be an instrument of pressure, marketing or social revenge. Anyone who knows the history, the struggle and its trajectory knows that there is a huge difference between facts and narratives created to fuel attacks.

CNN Brasil also contacted Mc Ryan's defense. The space remains open.

Source: CNN