A world heritage site under attack in Brazil

Brazilwood is being driven to extinction by an industry not often associated with organized crime: classical music. Known for its density and strength, the wood is crafted into bows that are used to play stringed instruments such as violins and cellos around the world. Forensic tests on a sample of the confiscated wood, obtained by reporters, show it was logged in the Pau Brazil National Park.

How Brazil's environmental agency lost R$ 1 billion (Revista Piauí)

An investigation about how environmental fines "disappeared" from Brazil's environmental agency office, Ibama, helping several environmental offenders save money and continue deforestation in the Amazon.

Brazilian Bow Makers Investigated For Dealing in Endangered Wood (OCCRP/Piauí Magazine)

A 2-month cross-border investigation in the US, UK and Brazil about a group of bowmakers suspicious of trafficking an endangered brazilian wood to make violin and cello bows. I have coordinated this project.

Brazil might lose R$ 300 million in environmental fines by 2022 (BBC)

Internal documents, data obtained by the reporter and more than 20 interviews with former IBAMA employees and experts show that Brazil is not only not punishing deforestation but, according to the interviewees, companies feel that fines are not a deterrent to criminal behavior as they often expire without enforcement.

How Endangered Brazilian Timber Ends Up in the Bronx (OCCRP, Revista Piauí)

A long journalistic investigation reveals how gang members in Brazil have managed to ilegally extract and export yellow ipe wood to the USA in a highly profitable fraud scheme. This investigation has begun with a spreadsheet and multiple cross-referencing with public datasets.

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Exposing secret offshores in Luxembourg (OCCRP, Revista Piauí)

Coordinated by OCCRP, Le Monde and 15 other media partners around the world, this project has revealed how secret companies have been used for crime and corruption. The data was obtained by scraping Luxembourg's business register website. I was responsible for the data analysis and writing stories related to Brazilian figures.

How China Tobacco's worldwide expansion is keeping Brazilian tobacco growers in debt (OCCRP, The Intercept)

A cross-border investigation on the world's largest tobacco company and how it is flooding countries with cigarettes and working with smuggling networks. We found, in Brazil, that farmers are comitting suicide and living in debt.

How Illegal Land Grabs in Brazil’s Amazon Feed the Global Beef Industry (OCCRP, Revista Piauí)

Land grabs and deforestation have devastated Brazil’s northern Pará state. But slaughterhouses, including some owned by top meat processors JBS and Marfrig, still buy from suppliers who source from ranches on stolen land. This story was made in partnership with Fiquem Sabendo, the non-profit data agency that I cofounded.

How a small company led a massive disinformation campaign in Brazil (Estadão)

I have used social media data to identify and group the most influent Facebook pages responsible for sharing disinformation content during Brazil's national elections in 2018. I found that they were being operated by a single small company operated by a couple. Facebook decided to shut their pages down a week after the story, based on my investigation.

This story made a city save millions in public funds (Estadão)

...by revealing that a public bid was already set between companies before the due date. The government decided to cancel the bid due to my investigation and start a new one with more competitors.

Exposing a millionaire housing-benefit fraud (Estadão)

...by revealing that public universities' top officials had been lying about where they actually lived. After that, a court said they should give the money back, based on the story.

Authorities helped healthcare tycoons to import innefective medicine during the pandemic (CNN Brasil)

Secret documents that I found through sources and several FOIA requests revealed how Bolsonaro's government spent public funds to import and produce chloroquine in Brazil using an Army lab during Covid-19 crisis. Some of the findings were mentioned later by congresspeople during an investigation.

Authorities and artists use illegal and dangerous air charter services (CNN Brasil)

Brazilian politicians, local and federal governments, celebrities and even air taxi unions have worked with air charter companies who were investigated and fined for illegal operations. I have coordinated this project, that led to multiple fines and investigations to some of these companies and one of them was shut down after the story was published.