US sanctions Brazilians accused of laundering money for crime group 

RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) — The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned two Brazilians, three Brazilian companies and one Portuguese company accused of taking part in a money laundering network tied to Primeiro Comando da Capital, one of Brazil’s largest criminal organizations.

The crackdown comes weeks after the Trump administration began treating the group as a terrorist organization. In a statement, the U.S. government said PCC represents a growing threat to U.S. national security and described it as the largest transnational criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere.

The sanctions target Victor Henrique de Oliveira Shimada and Stella Stefanie Nunes Henrique de Oliveira. The Brazilian companies Victory Trading Intermediação de Negócios Cobranças e Tecnologia, Pixwave Soluções de Pagamento and Wave Construções Inteligentes were also added to the U.S. sanctions list, along with the Portuguese company Avenidas Flutuantes Unipessoal.

According to the Treasury, the four companies were owned, controlled or directed by Shimada, or acted on his behalf.

The Treasury said the network operated between Florida and São Paulo to launder drug trafficking proceeds and send money to PCC in Brazil. The department said Shimada and his organization laundered more than $30 million generated in U.S. cities, using cryptocurrency to move the funds to Brazil.

Shimada’s name has already appeared in Brazilian money laundering investigations since 2024.

According to Brazilian media, São Paulo prosecutors charged him in a case involving the purported diversion of funds from a sponsorship contract between a soccer club and a betting company. The investigation does not accuse him of being a PCC member.

Nunes Henrique de Oliveira, described by the Treasury as Shimada’s relative and close associate, supposedly worked as his secretary and brokered bulk cash pickups, providing logistical support for the laundering operations.

Under the sanctions, all property and interests in property belonging to the targets that are in the U.S. or under the control of Americans are blocked. American companies are also barred from doing business with them.

Diego Nunes, a criminal law professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, said the sanctions do not have a direct legal effect in Brazil because they are a unilateral U.S. action, not the result of cooperation between the two countries.

“The main issue is the mismatch between these legal systems,” Nunes said.

Nunes said Brazil and the U.S. have traditionally cooperated against organized crime through law enforcement and justice channels. U.S. President Donald Trump’s classification of PCC as a terrorist organization, however, shifted the issue toward a national security framework that has no direct equivalent in Brazil’s legal treatment of organized crime groups.

Fabrício Polido, an associate professor of international law at the Federal University of Minas Gerais and a partner at L.O. Baptista Advogados, said the sanctions take immediate effect in the U.S. but are not self-executing in Brazil.

Any criminal consequences in Brazil would require Brazilian authorities to investigate the facts under domestic law, he said. That could include money laundering, organized crime or financial crimes, but it would not happen automatically because someone was added to a U.S. sanctions list.

The more immediate effect in Brazil, Polido said, is financial. Banks and companies that conduct dollar transactions, have ties to U.S. institutions or work with partners exposed to the U.S. financial system are likely to treat the sanctioned people and companies as high-risk clients or counterparties.

He said the key risk is secondary sanctions: Foreign financial institutions, including Brazilian ones, could be punished or lose access to the U.S. financial system if they knowingly facilitate significant transactions with sanctioned individuals or companies.

Polido said the case is the first test of the new U.S. sanctions framework applied to Brazilians after the designation of PCC and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations.

“The approximately $30 million allegedly laundered is marginal compared with the systemic effect of the precedent,” he said, hinting at wider ramifications for banks, companies and other institutions exposed to the U.S. financial system.

Dennis Pacheco, a researcher at the National Institute on Violence, Power and Public Security, said money laundering has become more central to PCC as the group expanded its activities and moved more of its operations across borders.

He also criticized Trump’s use of unilateral sanctions. Pacheco said broad definitions of links to organized crime groups could affect institutions or companies with no direct connection to PCC and reduce the international cooperation needed to fight money laundering.

The Treasury said the sanctions followed an investigation led by a Homeland Security task force, with participation from the FBI’s Miami field office and the U.S. Justice Department.

In January, six people tied to the network’s Florida operations were arrested by the FBI and indicted on money laundering charges in federal court in the Southern District of Florida. The new sanctions target what the Treasury described as the São Paulo-based side of the operation.

This is the Treasury Department’s third action against PCC. The group was first sanctioned in 2021 for involvement in international drug trafficking. In 2024, the Treasury also sanctioned Diego Macedo Gonçalves do Carmo, described as a financial operator for the organization.

Brazil’s government had already criticized the designation of PCC and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations.

At the time, the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the groups use terror tactics in communities where they operate but are profit-driven criminal organizations primarily involved in drug and arms trafficking.

The Brazilian government also said unilateral measures could weaken cooperation against organized crime and argued that Brazilian institutions should decide how crimes are classified and addressed in the country.

In a statement to Courthouse News, Brazil’s Justice Ministry criticized unilateral sanctions imposed outside international legal cooperation channels.

It said the decision was not unexpected after the U.S. classified PCC as a foreign terrorist organization, but warned that unilateral action could lead to more severe steps outside ordinary cooperation mechanisms.

The ministry said Brazil has the legal tools and institutional capacity to fight organized crime, citing a multibillion-dollar plan and a new law targeting the territorial and economic control of criminal organizations.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the sanctions, saying the issue was not a foreign policy matter.

Courthouse News reporter Marília Marasciulo is based in Brazil.