Brazil's Federal Police say Cláudio Castro, former governor of Rio de Janeiro state, received direct benefits from a money laundering scheme tied to the Refit group, the former Manguinhos refinery. The findings appear in a decision from the second phase of Operation Sem Refino, unsealed on Thursday (3) by Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. The alleged benefits include 10,500 reais in caviar paid by a third party's company, de facto use of a mansion in Petrópolis, a mountain town north of Rio, and a below-market rent for the penthouse where he lives in Barra da Tijuca. Castro is under investigation, has not been convicted, and his lawyers deny any wrongdoing.
The inquiry describes an asset-concealment structure built on front men, known in Brazil as "laranjas", and third-party companies used to pay the former governor's expenses and hide luxury assets. Refit is controlled by businessman Ricardo Magro, described by G1 as one of Brazil's largest tax debtors. The court ordered his pretrial detention in May, in the operation's first phase; he is now a fugitive listed on an Interpol red notice. Data taken from seized phones also suggests that Castro and his secretaries kept direct channels to speed up environmental licenses and pursue competitor companies.
The caviar episode
Messages quoted in the decision show that Castro personally negotiated the purchase of different types and weights of caviar with a supplier and asked that part of the order be delivered to a suite at the Hotel Emiliano in São Paulo, where he was staying on April 24, 2026. The final price, after discounts, came to 10,500 reais. He told the seller he would send PIX payment proof (PIX is Brazil's instant transfer system), but bank records showed the money came from the account of AC Santos Participações e Empreendimentos, a company owned by lawyer Antonio Carlos da Conceição Santos, known as "Pipo", whom police call the central laundering operator of the group. Investigators see the case as objective proof that third parties covered spending incompatible with the former governor's lawful income.
A mansion in the mountains and a penthouse in Rio
In Petrópolis, police say Castro enjoyed de facto possession of a luxury property in the Locanda Residenze condominium, registered in the name of Concrecasa Construções Inteligentes. The company's administrator, Carolina Gonçalves Xavier Pereira, has corporate ties to businessman Luiz Fernando Gomes, whose Enge Prat Engenharia e Serviços signed 11 contracts with the state government during Castro's term, worth a combined 355.2 million reais, including 49.6 million reais without competitive bidding. According to the decision, Castro behaved like the true owner of the house: he ran security routines, received the property's electricity bills on his phone and coordinated renovations he called "my work", including a climate-controlled wine cellar budgeted at 245,000 reais whose PDF file carried the metadata title "AP Adega Claudio Castro". O Globo reported that between January 2024 and early this year Castro used the state government's official helicopter at least 24 times for weekend trips to Petrópolis.
In Barra da Tijuca, the former governor lives under a contract of 10,000 reais a month with a company called J3 Real Estate, below the market average estimated by police at between 25,000 and 29,000 reais. J3 was created 50 days before buying the penthouse for 3.48 million reais, lists the property as its only asset and only opened its first bank account three years after the purchase. Seized messages also showed Castro and his wife coordinating renovation details, such as the glass railing around the pool, months before they moved in, which investigators say contradicts the defense's version that he took no part in the work.
Timeline and the defense
The first phase of Sem Refino was launched in May, when Moraes authorized searches targeting Castro and other suspects and ordered Magro's arrest. The second phase came on August 14, with 16 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Court; targets included former state environment secretary Bernardo Rossi and former digital transformation secretary José Mauro Farias Junior. At the time, police said the operation investigated fraud in the granting of environmental licenses for the refinery, in defiance of the guidelines of technical agencies, along with money laundering. Days earlier, the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), Brazil's oil regulator, had revoked Refit's operating authorization.
The defense tells a different story. Lawyer Carlo Luchione told O Globo the Barra penthouse is rented and denied it underwent a major renovation. On the Petrópolis house, the defense says the property has no remaining ties to Castro, who says he occupied it from October 2023 to early this year under a regular lease. G1 reported it was seeking comment from Castro and had received no reply by publication time.
The next steps belong to the Supreme Court. The inquiry remains with Moraes, police are still analyzing the seized material, and any formal charges would require an indictment filed by the Prosecutor General's Office before the STF. No date has been set.