Nicolau Dos Santos Neto

Nicolau dos Santos Neto is ex-President of the Regional Labor Tribunal of São Paulo and ex-chief of the building project of a new Regional Labor Tribunal of São Paulo. He is now serving a 26 years 6 months jail term in connection with fraud and laundering of US$ 86 million meant for the project. Neto and his associates laundered the money between numerous accounts in the USA, the Caribbean and Switzerland with the sole intention of covering up the source of the cash and nature of transactions. It is further alleged that using the stolen money Neto acquired an apartment worth over $1m in Miami and US$ 476,000.00 was spent on decorations, bought two Mercedes and two Porsches, and operated  17 bank accounts in 11 countries. 1  A former son-in-law provided evidence that Nicolau had US$4.5 million in offshore accounts in Bahamas and Cayman Islands. 2

The court project started in 1992. By 1999, US$165 million had been paid out, yet official estimates indicated that only US$44 million had actually been spent on it.  Nicolau  denied wrong doing when he appeared before a congressional commission, though evidence at hand suggested otherwise. Nicolau then went into hiding, during which it was rumoured that he was living in different countries including the United States of America, Argentina and Uruguay or somewhere in Sao Paulo under the protection of one of his powerful friends. 3 In December 2000 Nicolau surrendered to the police. He was convicted, fined  and sentenced to a prison term.