Overview

• Federal authorities executed dozens of warrants, ordered 22 preventive arrests, blocked roughly R$1.5 billion, and suspended activities for 42 companies by order of the 3rd Federal Criminal Court in Belo Horizonte.
• Investigators say an organized network used fraudulent environmental authorizations to enable large-scale iron ore extraction in protected areas such as Serra do Curral and Serra de Botafogo.
• The probe cites alleged misappropriation of a Vale reject pile valued at R$200 million by Aiga Mineração and indications of R$2.7 million in bribes paid to an ANM director.
• The Minas Gerais government removed four Semad staffers on the day the operation was launched, following earlier dismissals that included former Feam president Rodrigo Gonçalves Franco.
• Civil groups MAB and Muvb denounced the alleged corruption and warned of heightened disaster risk, while ANM and SGB issued statements offering to cooperate and state lawmakers discussed a CPI to scrutinize licensing.