A convicted money launderer must forfeit more than $7 million after a Serious Fraud Office investigation uncovered a UK bank account connected to his ‘unlawful conduct’.
Mario Ildeu de Miranda, 71, was convicted of 37 counts of money laundering in Brazil. Miranda, a former executive at Petrobras, a Brazilian-owned oil company, was sentenced to four years 10 months and 10 days imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay $24,750,000 in Brazil following an investigation into bribery and corruption in relation to a contract between Petrobras and construction giant the Odebrecht Group.
Miranda was said to be one of the ‘financial operators’ who received $24,749,975 from Odebrecht and made onward transfers of $11,500,500 to Petrobras employees.
A subsequent investigation by the Serious Fraud Office uncovered a UK bank account which contained almost $7,700,000. The SFO found the funds had been transferred out of Miranda’s main Swiss bank account and channelled through other banks. The money in the frozen account was found to have come from multiple sources including banks in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Malta and Portugal. Other financial transactions between the ‘frozen account’ also came from accounts in the UAE and Paris.
District judge Clarke, sitting at Westminster Magistrates Court, said today: ‘It is clear to me that the money which was paid into the account from [Odebrecht] was money from a bribe. This would be an offence here in the UK.
‘Perhaps more importantly, this money is as a result of a bribe and the treatment of that money thereafter has clearly been treated in Brazil as money laundering. That is what the respondent has been convicted of. The money was illegitimate as it came from unlawful conduct.’
The judge added: ‘I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that the money derives from unlawful conduct, namely money laundering and satisfies the dual criminality test and therefore is recoverable property.
The judge said Miranda ‘ought to be in a position to explain’ the money and ‘if there is an innocent explanation’ but had not ‘satisfactorily’ done so.
She ordered the forfeiture of $7,699,204.09 and £698,635.98, subject to orders of costs.
It is the largest ever amount seized by the SFO from a single bank account.
Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, said: ‘Over two years, we unpicked a complex web of transactions across the world, exposing Mr Miranda’s attempt to conceal criminal proceeds and ensuring that the UK cannot be used as a hiding place for criminal assets.’
