The company owes a debt of more than USD 270 million to the bank. They are investigating if the company is evading the payment by placing the money in cryptocurrency exchanges.
Banco Fibra requested the Court of São Paulo to include four Brazilian Bitcoin exchanges in the process of seeking securities of a construction company that owes the financial institution a debt exceeding 1,128 million Brazilian reais (BRL), equivalent to about USD 270,141,336.
In a ruling published on January 10th in the Gazette of Justice of São Paulo, regarding a process for the embargo on more than BRL 1 million, issued by Banco Fibra in the Court of São Paulo, the bank requested the search for securities in several exchanges, such as Brasil Foxbit, Bitcoin Market, Bitcoin Trade and Xdex.
The request to investigate the properties of the owner of the company includes balances in fiat currency or cryptocurrencies, as well as the search for real estate and motor vehicles. This allows them to know if the accused company has evaded the payment by placing money in cryptocurrency exchanges.
The court document stipulates that the four exchanges will be notified of the debt that the owner of the construction company owes to the bank. These platforms will then inform the balances on behalf of the defendant company. In case of funds deposited in these exchanges, the judicial process will proceed to seize them.
It was reported by Brazilian media that the lawsuit was filed in 2013 by the financial institution, which has tried since then to recover the funds in multiple ways.
The bank requested the measure after an online embargo, conducted last October, barely managed to block BRL 49.71 (about USD 11.93) from the accounts of the construction company. Subsequently, the defense of Banco Fibra requested 30 days to find ways to obtain the amount owed, according to Brazilian media.
FinTech companies are not included in the list of BacenJud, an electronic system connecting the judiciary with the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) to simplify sending data and court to the National Financial System (SFN). Through it, registered judges can block bank accounts of organizations and individuals whose debts have been judicially recognized.
Last December, the defense of the banking institutions demanded that the FinTech and the cryptocurrency exchanges declare the securities that the defendants have stored on their platforms.
On the other hand, the Brazilian Securities Commission (CVM) published on December 18th a study that it developed jointly with the Institute of Technology and Society of Rio de Janeiro (ITS Rio), in which it proposes to incorporate a blockchain platform for forming a single register of investors.
The proposal states that investors do not need to repeat the register in all financial institutions with which they have a commercial relationship, but that all their data are available in a single space in the CVM that may be available to the entire financial system.
Likewise, in July 2018, in order to share with other regulatory bodies information on the authorization processes of financial institutions, the BCB announced the launch of support, called Information Integration Platform for Regulators (Pier), which was developed by the information technology department of the BCB.
Last August, it was reported that the CVM opened a channel for its spokespeople to discuss directly with representatives of projects related to cryptocurrencies, sandboxes, robot advisers and artificial intelligence, among other innovations. With this, the Commission intends to make regulations and emerging technology projects go together.
By Alexander Salazar
