Week begins with actions against fuel distributor cartel

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Two months after the "truck drivers' strike" stopped highways and forced the government to price the front, fuel distributors suffered severe blows this Tuesday (31/7). Accused of cartel, they were denounced by the Public Ministry of the Federal District, target of investigation by the Federal Police in Paraná and can be tried in a process that has been running since 1999.


In the last two days, fuel distributors were the target of a federal police operation in Paraná, received a complaint from the MP-DF and saw progress in a lawsuit filed in SP in 1999.

On Tuesday morning (31/7), the controlled B2B Lead margin operation was launched, in which eight executives from the companies BR Distribuidora, Shell and Ipiranga were arrested. 12 search and seizure warrants were also executed at the three largest fuel distributors in the country.

According to the PF investigation, the companies put pressure on gas stations in the region to fix prices at the pumps, harming free competition. A dialogue between a BR agent, subject of an arrest warrant, was published in which he states that distributors pass on to resellers only 60% of the subsidy they receive from the federal government to make fuel cheaper and pocket the rest.

DF Cartel
The action is almost the same as what happened in the Federal District, in 2015, with the Dubai operation. It took almost three years for the Public Prosecutor's Office to file charges against the accused. The 1st Criminal Court of Brasília accepted the case on Saturday (28/7), shortly before the new operation. This Wednesday, DF prosecutors held a press conference about the case.



According to the agency's Special Action Group to Combat Organized Crime (Gaeco), the Dubai investigation proved the participation of gas stations in the Federal District in the price standardization scheme.

Among those accused of crimes against the economic order and criminal organization are 16 owners of fuel resale stations, 6 station employees and 6 representatives of the same three distributors involved in Curitiba.