"Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit fraud investigation", 04 November 2025

...Brazil’s Federal Police have indicted 31 suspects for fraud and land-grabbing in a massive criminal carbon credit scheme in the Brazilian Amazon, according to Brazilian national media outlet Folha de S.Paulo. It is the largest known criminal operation involving carbon credit fraud to date in the nation...

The Netherlands-based Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA) analyzed the REDD+ projects, called Unitor and Fortaleza Ituxi, at Mongabay’s request, finding a mismatch between their declared volume of logged timber and the logged volume estimated through satellite images, suggesting possible timber laundering.

The police investigation confirmed that two REDD+ project areas were generating carbon credits at the same time they were being used to launder timber taken from other illegally deforested areas...

The Federal Police told Folha that three interconnected groups were involved.

One group was led by Ricardo Stoppe Júnior, known as Brazil’s largest individual seller of carbon credits. He has actively participated in climate talks and public events promoting his business model, including during the COP28 climate summit hosted in the United Arab Emirates...

The other two were led by Élcio Aparecido Moço and José Luiz Capelasso...

According to Operation Greenwashing, the scheme was made possible by corrupt public servants working in Brazil’s land reform agency, Incra, in registrar offices across Amazonas state, as well as the Amazonas state environmental protection institute, Ipaam.

Folha de S.Paulo did not get a response from any of the legal defence teams of the accused. Both Ipaam and Incra stated they supported and are collaborating with the police investigation...