Ricardo Stoppe Junior, known as the “carbon king,” built an image of a sustainable entrepreneur investing in carbon credits, but ended up being arrested by the Federal Police (PF). Born in the interior of São Paulo and a doctor by training, Stoppe Junior transformed environmental preservation into a million-dollar business, attracting investments from multinationals and Faria Lima funds until he was detained by the PF.
At 56, he was one of the targets of Operation Greenwashing, launched earlier this month by the PF of Rondônia. The operation investigated an illegal scheme of selling R$ 180 million in carbon credits, backed by Union and indigenous reserve lands, through notary fraud and bribery of public officials.
Stoppe Junior presented himself as a farmer who opted for carbon credits because he would make more money in the Amazon than raising cattle. He claimed to have been in the region for 20 years and felt as if he had been born there.
On social media, Stoppe Junior is a staunch supporter of Bolsonaro, with several posts removed by Facebook for spreading false information. He even defended military intervention in posts. His son, also investigated by the PF, donated R$ 5,000 to former President Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 campaign.
Since the early 2010s, Stoppe Junior has invested in carbon credits, which represent a reduction in environmental damage. One unit equals one ton of CO2 that was not emitted. Companies buy these credits to offset the environmental impacts of their activities. Stoppe Junior sold these credits to large multinationals and investment funds.
“Today, we are the largest producer of carbon credits in the world,” he said in an interview with AgroMais channel. According to him, one of his company’s assets was Fortaleza de Ituxi, which “started in an area of 133,000 preserved hectares,” in the south of Amazonas.
The project area is one of the main targets of the PF. Investigators identified that the land was registered on Union lands and the Kaxarari indigenous land, in the south of Amazonas. Corruption in notaries and the presentation of false documents approved by the Justice allowed part of these lands to double in size.
The land titles were opened in the notary with the acquisition date in the 80s, but shortly after registration, they were transferred to people linked to Stoppe Junior. In the investigation, dialogues reveal bribery schemes. In one conversation, the businessman mentions payments to a notary official in Apuí, in the Amazon region.
“Well, the 50,000 wasn’t even for that, it was 150 for the Alvorada business, well, got it? Because the Apuí notary there is on our case, who did the registration without that and shouldn’t have done it. Got it? It was for that there, I haven’t managed yet,” says one of the messages. In another conversation, the PF identified an intermediary of Stoppe Junior saying that “money solves” regarding records in the city of Lábrea (AM).
During the investigation, the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) sent the PF a report identifying suspicious transactions in movements of R$ 1.1 billion. Only to the husband of the Apuí notary official, mentioned in the bribery dialogue, Ituxi Participações, one of Stoppe Junior’s companies, transferred R$ 700,000.
The transfer corresponds to one of the conversations obtained by the PF about payments to Sâmara Silva, the Apuí notary official: “Well, that account for this contract, we will have to make seven hundred thousand. It’s for Samara, okay?” said the businessman in one of the audios.
The conversations also reveal the businessman’s influence in the region, including over the police. Another audio mentions that he “allocated” a police vehicle in Rondônia to search for his daughter, who was missing during a truck drivers’ strike. In other dialogues, he mentions agreements and payments to high-ranking military police officers to carry out operations at Fazenda Ituxi and favor his interests.
According to the PF, Stoppe Junior’s right-hand man listed in a conversation several phone numbers that were allegedly wiretapped in an investigation by the State Public Ministry of Amazonas into the group’s activities.
Metrópoles did not reach the defense of businessman Ricardo Stoppe Junior. The space remains open for comment.
This content is authored by the Brazilian newspaper Metrópoles.
