Brazil's Federal Police launched an operation Tuesday targeting an alleged financial fraud scheme at Banco Digimais and ordered freezing assets equivalent to about $125 million. Photo by Andre Borges/EPA
June 23 (UPI) -- Brazil's Federal Police launched an operation Tuesday targeting an alleged financial fraud scheme at Banco Digimais and ordered freezing assets equivalent to some $125 million.
Banco Digimais is an institution controlled by evangelical bishop Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and regarded as one of the country's most influential evangelical leaders.
More than 50 federal agents executed nine search-and-seizure warrants authorized by a federal court in São Paulo as part of Operation Mirage. The court order also authorized lifting banking and tax secrecy protections for those under investigation.
According to the Federal Police, the investigation is based on reports prepared by the Central Bank of Brazil, the country's main financial regulator, that identified what authorities described as serious irregularities in the management of the institution.
