Posted at 2:30 pm | 08 Feb 2023 | article
The former head of Alecrim was sentenced to more than 58 years in prison for money laundering
The Federal Public Ministry has secured the conviction of English businessman Anthony Armstrong and three others involved in a money laundering scheme propagated in RN, between 2012 and 2014, that embezzled at least R$75 million from investors.
Anthony John Domingo Armstrong Emery
The Office of the Federal Prosecutor (MPF) has obtained the conviction of English businessman Anthony John Domingo Armstrong Emery and three others involved in a money laundering scheme promoted in Rio Grande do Norte, between 2012 and 2014, which embezzled at least R$75 million of nearly 2,000 foreign investors. From the verdict, in the first instance, the convicts will still be able to appeal freely.
Armstrong’s sentence (58 years and five months in prison) includes several convictions for money laundering and offenses against the national financial system, the same offenses as the businessman’s then-daughter and principal partner, Gabriela Medeiros de Oliveira (whose sentence was 44 years and six months). .
Accountants Alexandre Magno Méndez and André Pinheiro López were sentenced to 3 years in prison for ideological falsehood, but their sentences were replaced by providing services to the community and donating basic food baskets. All four will have to pay fines. Four other people who were originally denounced by the MPF were excluded from the process after the agreements were signed.
blow
Through the so-called Ecohouse Group, the businessman promised investors – mainly from the UK and Singapore – 20% dividends per annum. Profitability will be generated from the construction and sale of low-income housing under the “Minha Casa, Minha Vida” program in Rio Grande do Norte. However, the works were not finished or even begun; The group did not have an agreement with the federal program (although it disclosed that it was the only English company with such a privilege); The investors’ money was not returned.
The MPF conviction was the result of Operation Godfather, which began in 2014. The label referred to the English title of the famous books and films whose name in Portuguese, “The Powerful Boss,” became Anthony Armstrong’s nickname in Rio Grande do Norte, where he became the president of Alecrim Futebol Clube and became Known as a great entrepreneur.
losses
The scheme harmed up to 1,500 Singaporeans and about 350 British investors. Although R75 million has passed through Ecohouse Group’s accounts in two and a half years, there is a possibility that this loss could be even greater. A lawyer representing 400 clients in Singapore calculated the losses of those representatives at R$64 million.
While he was in the UK, where Antony Armstrong was convicted in March 2019, by the UK High Court, the estimated loss in the process (in relation to 350 local investors) was around R$130 million. In that country, each interested party invested £23,000 (one pound is currently about R$6.20), while in Singapore each share was sold for S$46,000 (each share is about R$3.90).
The money was raised through Ecohouse Brasil Construções (one of the companies in the group that illegally operates as a financial institution) and was transferred to the personal expenses of the two main parties, as well as investments in other companies in the group, in the football club and even in the competition that brought together 16 Brazilian teams In 2013, the Ecohouse Cup. By leaving Alecrim, the MPF notes that Anthony Armstrong has left behind a series of labor lawsuits and a blot on the club’s reputation.
trap – All the propaganda that was spread about the businessman was intended to spread the image of Armstrong as a great and powerful businessman, and to add to the arsenal of lies that were told to investors. Some of the works were played to act as a decoy, and when interested parties came to visit them a ‘rotation of workmen’ was promoted to give the impression that they were in full swing. At the same time, the accountants, including the two defendants, signed forged ideological documents proving that the construction was proceeding according to schedule.
In March 2020, based on a complaint by the MPF, Justice ordered the protective custody of Armstrong and Gabriela Medeiros. She did, however, obtain a habeas corpus before she could actually be arrested. The businessman had already been arrested by Interpol in October 2020, in the UAE, but was released a day later, after posting bail, and banned from traveling while the extradition process was being processed. Later, however, he also obtained a writ of habeas corpus.
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