Fernando, businessman arrested in PF operation tied to MC Ryan and Poze, dies in Santos, Brazil

Fernando, a partner in a high-end bakery in the Ponta da Praia neighborhood of Santos, died during the early hours of Monday (22) from natural causes. For high-risk payment players, the relevant detail is not the obituary itself but the alleged payment rail behind it: the Federal Police said he had sent funds to Golden Cat, which they describe as the financial infrastructure of the scheme.

1. According to the Federal Police, Golden Cat was a “large payment processor that moves hundreds of millions of reais and functions as the central hub for collecting resources from illegal betting.” In other words, this was not treated as a side wallet or a one-off mule account; investigators framed it as the collection layer of the operation.
2. g1 reported that Fernando sent R$ 360,000 to the company between June and August 2024 in 16 Pix transactions. That kind of split-flow pattern is exactly what investigators said they were looking at: multiple accounts, fragmented amounts, and attempts to reduce the risk of blocking and bypass automatic financial controls.
3. Fernando had been released by a decision of the Federal Court in Santos, which also released other accused people. His lawyer, Armando de Mattos, told g1 that the investigation against Fernando is now closed because of his death, and that no indictment had been filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF).
4. The wider Operation Narco Fluxo was built around 90 judicial orders, including search and seizure warrants and temporary arrest orders issued by the 5th Federal Court in Santos. The operation covered addresses in eight states plus the Federal District, and asset seizure was also ordered.
5. Federal Police said the scheme used audiovisual production and digital show business to combine drug trafficking, gambling, and digital raffles with the image of mass influencers. That is the part PSPs and acquirers should read twice: the financial flow was allegedly embedded in consumer-facing entertainment rather than an obvious criminal shell.