Brazilian Police Raid Offices of Banco Itaú

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil's Federal Police launched a new phase of their Operation Zealots tax-fraud investigation, with offices of the country's largest private bank, Banco Itaú SA, raided on Thursday.

Police said they have evidence of "collusion" between a member of Brazil's tax-appeals council CARF and "a financial institution" between 2006 and 2015. Brazil's largest television news channel, Globo, reported that Banco Itaú was subjected to raids carried out early Thursday.

A person familiar with the investigation said that the target of Thursday's operation was BankBoston, which Banco Itaú acquired in 2006 from Bank of America Corp. Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles worked for 28 years at BankBoston, where he became president and chief operating officer before leaving in 2002.

The Federal Police's press office declined to identify which financial institution was being looked at. A spokesman for Banco Itaú declined to comment. Brazil's Finance Ministry, which oversees CARF, declined to immediately comment. Mr. Meirelles declined through a spokesman to comment on the investigation targeting his former employer.

Since it began in March 2015, Operation Zealots has already ensnared a number of major Brazilian firms on allegations that the companies avoided paying large fines by bribing members of CARF, which adjudicates disputes between Brazil's tax agency and the nation's top taxpayers.

The firms include Brazil's No. 2 private-sector bank, Banco Bradesco SA, whose chief executive was charged with corruption in July for allegedly bribing tax officials. Bradesco said at the time its executives hadn't broken any laws.

Rogerio Jelmayer and Paulo Trevisani contributed to this article

Write to Paul Kiernan at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 01, 2016 09:05 ET (14:05 GMT)

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