1,283 fuel stations across Brazil had their business registrations suspended by the federal tax agency, Receita Federal, on Friday (28), in an action named Operation Hidden Pump (Operação Bomba Oculta). In Brazil, that registration, known as CNPJ, works like a company's ID number: without it, a business cannot hold a bank account, use a payment app or issue electronic invoices. For drivers, the move takes off the street pumps that investigators say served as an entry point for organized crime money.
Receita's special secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas, said the goal is to financially "suffocate" criminal organizations, according to G1. The operation comes exactly one year after Operation Hidden Carbon (Operação Carbono Oculto), which exposed how criminal gangs had infiltrated the entire fuel supply chain, from imports to retail pumps.
"When you suspend or strike the registration of 1,283 clearly irregular companies, many of them directly involved with criminal organizations, you suffocate those organizations financially, you suffocate their money laundering entry point," Barreirinhas said.
In practice, a suspended CNPJ is like a person losing their ID card, bank account and instant payment app on the same day. The company disappears from the formal financial system and can no longer move money under a legal appearance. "Without a CNPJ you cannot issue documents, you cannot have a bank account, a fintech account, nothing," the secretary explained.
How a gas station becomes a money laundry
Money laundering is the process of giving criminal proceeds a legal appearance. According to Receita, the scheme uncovered last year worked in three steps: the station received the money, including cash; the funds flowed through collector accounts at fintechs, Brazil's digital payment companies; and, at the end, they were channeled into investment funds.
Since 2019, the national fuel regulator ANP has revoked the operating license of more than 10,000 stations, Receita said. Even without a license, many kept selling fuel because their tax registration remained active. Operation Hidden Pump closes that loophole in a sector that gathers more than 130,000 companies nationwide.
In São Paulo, six clandestine stations were sealed on Friday by a task force of about 60 agents. One of them, on the Marginal Tietê expressway, was hastily abandoned by employees during the raid, investigators told G1. In the state, 910 stations now have their state tax registrations suspended: 682 from earlier actions and another 228 added on Friday.
Most of the establishments are registered in the name of front men, people who lend their names to hide the real owners, investigators said. The Marginal Tietê station is registered to Amine Mourad, sister of Mohamad Mourad, known as "Primo" and one of the targets of last year's operation.
The operation brings together Receita, the São Paulo state finance department, ANP, federal and state government attorneys and the Civil Police. A new tax agency rule published this week sped up the precautionary suspension of registrations. According to Barreirinhas, the physical shutdowns start in the city of São Paulo and will be extended to the rest of the country.
For the secretary, the effect goes beyond paperwork: with no channel to move resources, launderers will be forced to look for new routes and expose themselves. "They will have to show up somewhere else to launder this money. And we are watching that," he said.