The São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office indicted businessman Sidney Oliveira, owner of Ultrafarma, and six others for a corruption scheme involving undue ICMS reimbursements from 2021 to 2025. The charges, filed on February 5, 2026, estimate losses of R$ 327 million to public coffers. The indictment relies on evidence such as WhatsApp messages and geolocation data.
The indictment was filed on Thursday, February 5, 2026, by the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office (MPSP) against seven people, including Ultrafarma owner Sidney Oliveira, an accounting director, a company assistant, and former tax auditors from the São Paulo State Finance and Planning Secretariat. Prosecutors João Ricupero, Roberto Bodini, Murilo Perez, and Igor Bedone charge the involved parties with active and passive corruption, with crimes occurring between 2021 and 2025.
The investigation is part of Operation Ícaro, launched in August 2025, when Sidney Oliveira and statutory director Mario Otávio Gomes were temporarily arrested and released days later. The São Paulo Court of Justice revoked precautionary measures against Oliveira due to the lack of a formal indictment at the time. Now, the MPSP asserts robust evidence, such as messages extracted from Oliveira's WhatsApp, where bribes are coded as "wine" and auditor Artur Gomes da Silva Neto is referred to as "friend" or "King." In one exchange, Oliveira's assistant mentions delivering "250," referring to R$ 250,000 in cash.
Geolocation data confirm that Gomes Neto was at Ultrafarma's headquarters on the delivery dates. The auditors, including Alberto Toshio Murakami – a fugitive possibly in the United States, with a $1.3 million property in Maryland –, allegedly facilitated and inflated ICMS credit reimbursements under the substitution tax modality (ICMS-ST), exploiting Portaria CAT 42/2018. In exchange, they received illicit payments to expedite procedures and authorize credit transfers to third parties.
The scheme generated R$ 327 million in undue benefits to Ultrafarma, according to the prosecutors. The MPSP requested preventive detention for Gomes Neto, already held in Potim (SP), and for Murakami, seeking his inclusion on Interpol's red notice list. For Oliveira and others, such as a fiscal director, electronic ankle monitors and passport seizures were requested.
The Finance Secretariat stated it revoked changes to a 2022 ordinance and decree after the operation. Since 2023, it has implemented control measures, including reviewing 3,400 credit issuances, opening 33 administrative proceedings with suspensions and dismissals, and a working group in coordination with oversight bodies. Ultrafarma and Oliveira's defense have not commented as of now; his previous lawyers have withdrawn from the case.
