Guyana Anti Corruption Network

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**

### GACN INVESTIGATION TO EXPOSE NETWORK OF BOLSONARO ALLIES, FUGITIVES, AND MONEY LAUNDERERS EXPLOITING GUYANA’S GOLD RUSH

**GEORGETOWN, GUYANA –** The Guyana Anti-Corruption Network (GACN) announces it will release a comprehensive investigative report revealing the alarming extent to which associates of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, including convicted criminals and fugitives from justice, have established sophisticated money laundering operations within Guyana’s gold mining sector.

The forthcoming report, titled *”Bolsonaro’s Gold: How Fugitives and Fraudsters Are Laundering Billions in the Guiana Shield,”* builds on months of cross-border research and exposes a direct pipeline of illicit finance flowing from Brazilian political corruption into Guyana’s most vital natural resource industry.

**The investigation will reveal:**

– **The Ramagem Escape Network:** New evidence detailing how convicted coup plotter and former Brazilian intelligence chief Alexandre Ramagem used connections to illegal mining figures in Roraima to orchestrate his clandestine September 2025 escape into Guyana, from where he fled to the United States. The report identifies the specific individuals in the mining sector who allegedly facilitated his flight.

– **The Dos Santos Money Laundering Enterprise:** An in-depth look at how Glaidson Acácio dos Santos, the “Faraone dos Bitcoins” currently serving time in Brazil for a R$38 billion (US$7 billion+) pyramid scheme, has used Guyana as a haven to launder money through his wife, Mirelis Díaz Zerpa, and a network of shell companies including Gold Forest Mining Inc. and Remex Minerals Inc. The investigation traces the flow of dirty gold from remote Guyanese mining camps to international refineries in Switzerland.

– **Political Sanctuaries and Institutional Failures:** Proof that Guyana’s gold sector has become a preferred destination for Bolsonaro’s political allies facing legal scrutiny in Brazil. The report names José Estevão de Sousa Júnior (“Júnior do Posto”), a former Liberal Party candidate, and Pastor Everaldo Dias Pereira, president of the Social Christian Party, as key players establishing operations in Guyana, exploiting weak regulatory oversight at the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).

– **The Convergence of Crime:** Documentation of how drug trafficking networks, illegal mining operations, and political money laundering are converging in the Guiana Shield, using identical routes and corrupt officials to move cocaine, gold, and fugitives across borders with impunity. The report links recent multi-ton drug seizures in Guyana to the same networks now laundering money through gold exports.

– **Specific Recommendations:** A detailed action plan for Guyanese authorities, international partners, and civil society to shut down these operations, including urgent reforms needed at the GGMC, enhanced due diligence for foreign investors, and a call for the extradition of Alexandre Ramagem from the United States.

“This is not just a corruption story; it is a national security crisis,” said a GACN official engaged in the investigation. “Our investigation reveals that Guyana is being actively used as a playground for sophisticated international criminals and politically connected fugitives who are laundering billions through our gold sector. The same networks that smuggled a convicted coup plotter across our border are now embedded in our economy, exploiting our resources and undermining our institutions. This must stop.”

The report will also detail how the very routes used to smuggle Ramagem out of Brazil are identical to those used to traffic cocaine and illegal gold, demonstrating the deep interconnectivity of these criminal enterprises.

**GACN is calling for:**

1. An immediate, independent audit of all foreign-owned mining permits and gold trading licenses issued in the last three years.
2. Enhanced background checks and due diligence for all foreign investors, particularly those with political ties to foreign governments.
3. Urgent institutional reforms at the GGMC to address “deep-rooted institutional failures” and corruption risks.
4. Full cooperation with Brazilian and U.S. authorities to secure the extradition of Alexandre Ramagem and investigate the financial flows linked to the named individuals.
5. A parliamentary inquiry into the scale of money laundering in the extractive industries.

The full report, *”Bolsonaro’s Gold,”* will be released soon. A copy of the report will be made available to all accredited media.

“We cannot allow Guyana to become a safe haven for the world’s criminals,” added an Indigenous Leader. “The time for action is now.”

**About the Guyana Anti-Corruption Network (GACN):**
GACN is a coalition of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in Guyana’s public and private institutions. We work to expose corruption and advocate for systemic reforms to protect Guyana’s future.

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