Havan owner’s fortune origins challenged in Brazilian Intelligence Agency report

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In July 2020, Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) produced a 15-page report pointing to issues and inconsistencies in the fortune of the country’s largest department store chain’s owner billionaire Luciano Hang, an influential supporter of president Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

The official document alerted the Presidential Palace to the risks Hang’s closeness could pose to the current administration.

Classified as “reserved”, the document obtained by UOL contains information on Hang. It was forwarded by the agency to the Chief of Staff, the Army high command, the Federal Police, and has now reached the hands of a Covid CPI (investigative committee) senator.

According to a source linked to the parliamentary inquiry committee that received the report, there is a “cautious approach” on the part of intelligence and military high command with respect to a number of entrepreneurs who support the president and are considered “problematic.”

The report was produced at a time when the Ministry of Health was planning to cover up data related to the novel coronavirus and deaths from the disease, disclosed in June 2020 by Valor Econômico newspaper. According to the article, Havan’s owner would have been among those behind the idea.

Abin regularly prepares reports on politicians, supporters, entrepreneurs and people close to the presidency of the Republic.

The document on Hang is divided into 7 topics and covers the start of Hang’s business life, at the age of 21, with the purchase of a textile mill, up to charges that led him to be investigated for the potential financing of fake news networks and the so-called “hate cabinet.”

Businesses under investigation

In the document prepared by the body linked to the GSI (Institutional Security Cabinet), currently headed by General Augusto Heleno, Luciano Hang is described as someone who has been engaged in businesses of questionable integrity since 1997.

“Always expanding his businesses, with no partners, no investors, no debt, and often seeming to have a hidden source of funds, which could not be explained solely by tax evasion and smuggling of imported goods for stores,” the document states.

Abin points out that in 2000, an economics student from UFSC (Federal University of Santa Catarina), not identified in the report, produced a thesis on the competitiveness of Havan stores, “having gained access to the company’s accounting data through Luciano Hang.”

The work showed that the stores’ monthly fixed cost was “five times higher than the company’s turnover,” which, under normal circumstances, would render the business unfeasible, according to the government intelligence.

“This reported fixed cost concerned the stock that would be equivalent to 5 times the chain of stores’ monthly turnover and would demand high working capital, thereby evidencing Hang’s high financial availability even then,” it explained.

Next, in the topic entitled “Havan Financial,” the agency reports that still in the early 2000s, the entrepreneur started a business development company, which provided million-dollar loans that, according to the report, characterized the practice of “loan sharking,” which resulted in judicial charges. In the TJSC (Santa Catarina State Court of Justice) alone, 25 lawsuits are still pending related to Hang’s loans.

“It is to be assumed that entrepreneurs who sought Hang would not be eligible to pass the screening of a real bank, subjecting themselves to above-market interest rate charges and alienation of assets as collateral,” says the government agency.

When sought by the report, Havan’s legal department stated that “all companies owned by Mr. Luciano Hang have been and are within the law, subject to all control rules, thus no loan sharking or money laundering has ever been committed.”

Judicial escrow funds

The intelligence file also lists pending lawsuits and investigations into the entrepreneur. Among them is the 1999 action of Federal Prosecutor Celso Antônio Três, who investigated him for money laundering, transfer of money of illegal or doubtful source, tax evasion, smuggling of imported goods, and currency evasion. The entrepreneur allegedly used his “cousin Nilton Hang as a front.”

According to the report, investigations into Hang coincided with the judiciary bonds scandal, the target of a Senate inquiry (CPI), which uncovered irregularities in the payment of lawsuits in Santa Catarina, Pernambuco, Alagoas, and some cities in the state of São Paulo.

“The scheme investigated by prosecutor Celso Três in Paraná was the main source of money evasion resulting from the embezzlement of funds from judicial escrow funds, through Banestado’s CC5 account (the type of accounts used in the scandal),” the document notes.

There is also information about Hang’s 2003 court sentence of almost 4 years in prison for “evading social security contributions.” The investor was fined R$10 (US$2) million.

Relationships

When describing the 3 investment funds set up by Luciano Hang (Havan FIDC, Fundo Davos, and Challenger FII), Abin points out that one of them, Fundo Davos, began to be advised by Emerald, a wealth management company linked to the Safra family, of Safra Bank.

Next, the report states that in August 2018, the entrepreneur promoted a breakfast in support of then-presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign with 62 businessmen linked to the Jewish community.

At the meeting were businessman Meyer Negri and Fábio Wajngarten – the latter eventually occupied the post of executive secretary of Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency) and is pointed out in the report as being Negri’s godson.

“Meyer Negri would have had an influence on the nomination of Wajngarten to Secom and Ricardo Salles to the Ministry of Environment,” Abin adds.

The report also points to Silvio Santos, owner of SBT television channel, as being a member of the Jewish community with great influence and close to the owner of Havan.

“Since 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro government, Luciano Hang has been SBT’s largest private sponsor, holding part of Sunday afternoon, considered prime time on television, with exclusive programs sponsored by Havan,” says the body linked to the GSI, pointing out that a rapprochement between the owner of SBT and the government would have had Hang’s assistance.

‘Fake News’

Since the 2018 elections, which elected president Jair Bolsonaro, Luciano Hang has been accused of being one of the financiers of fake news through WhatsApp, as well as part of the so-called “hate cabinet,” responsible for unleashing attacks against political opponents.

The document also highlights that the entrepreneur is one of the ongoing STF criminal investigation targets into attacks on the Court.

“The STF ordered a major Federal Police search and seizure operation in late May, targeting YouTubers, sponsors of Bolsonarist websites and alleged financiers, among them, Luciano Hang, who also had his phone and bank secrecy lifted,” the report states.

Senators of the so-called G-7, a group of opposition legislators and those considered independent comprising the majority of the Covid CPI collegiate, plan to summon Hang to testify, but no date has been set yet.

Havan denies the existence of a report

In reply to the story, Havan’s legal department stated that the Abin report “is Fake News,” because “had there been any document, it would be secret and therefore inaccessible by UOL.”

The existence of the report was confirmed to UOL by sources from Abin, the Federal Police, the GSI, and a member of the Covid CPI.

Havan’s legal department also reported that, “in the event of publication, both the media outlet that published the story and the journalist who wrote it will be held accountable.”

Source: UOL