Organizational Crime in Brazil - Mafias. Overview

Corporate crime in Brazil is collective, not individual: major frauds and schemes are rarely the work of one person; they operate by cohesive networks with mafia logic.

Organizational Crime in Brazil: how the mafias that threaten companies work

Crime exists in every culture. It is the hidden side of society - just as the unconscious is the hidden side of consciousness. In Brazil, however, the sophisticated organized crime, the one that actually threatens companies, investors, and institutions, is almost never practiced by isolated individuals.

It is practiced by groups.

Cohesive groups.
Groups united by mutual commitments.
Groups backed by secrets.

In other words: Mafia structures.

Mafia logic applied to the corporate environment

In the classic archetype of the Sicilian Mafia, there are three fundamental pillars. The mistake of Brazilian companies is to believe that this belongs only to the cinema or to the underworld. It doesn't belong.

1. Cohesion through commitment (“butt tied”)

In the traditional mob, the novice must commit a serious crime to prove loyalty. This creates an irreversible bond: if one falls, everyone falls.

In the corporate world, the logic is the same—just more sophisticated.
Only who joins the group Share risks, who participated in something irregular, who You can't leave without incriminating yourself.

This pact of silence is the glue that holds the group together - and that prevents any dissent.

2. The Complementary Crimes Package

Where there is a Mafia, there is always a Recurrent set of crimes, never a single one:

• scam: false representations, manipulation of numbers, simulated contracts.
• Internal corruption: co-opt key people to approve transactions, ignore alerts, “not see” the obvious.
• Extortion and threats: explicit or veiled, used to control, intimidate, and guarantee silence.
• Money Laundering: no scheme can be sustained without mechanisms to clean up illegal resources.

These crimes feed off each other. Remove one, the system collapses.

3. “Internal policing”: the burning of files

Every Mafia has a mechanism of Enforcement. In Brazil, this is known as “file burning”.

It's not just about physical violence. It's about method, strategy, and control:

• punish betrayals,
• intimidate potential dissidents,
• reinforce the group's identity,
• erase traces.

That's how silence is kept.

Why investigating corporate mafias is not compliance

Investigate corporate organized crime It's not apply compliance checklists, nor follow generic manuals. That fails because mafias They don't live in official documents.

Real research requires strategic intelligence:

• know markets and economic chains,
• Map formal and informal organization charts,
• parse HR, financial flows, and power centers,
• connect apparently disconnected dots,
• interpret silences, absences, and omissions,
• identify the invisible pact that holds the group together.

Corporate mob leaves no obvious signature. She hides normally.

The Mafia is not a fixed entity. It's a process.

A common mistake is to imagine the Mafia as a rigid, permanent organization with a clear hierarchy. In Brazil, it's not like that.

Mafia is a process.
Uma flexible network, adaptable, deeply rooted.

It operates:

• in common crime,
• in politics,
• not entrepreneurship,
• in the financial market,
• in public administration.

It moves, changes shape, changes actors, but preserves logic: loyalty, silence, power and control.

Conclusion: fighting mafias requires more than police

The fight against corporate organized crime is not solved only with police, lawsuits, or audits. It requires something rarer: Understanding Mafia logic.

This includes:

• parallel economy,
• internal loyalties,
• strategic rationality,
• power dynamics,
• and, above all, the role of silence.

Companies that don't understand this logic remain vulnerable — even though they believe they are protected.

If your organization faces risks that seem fuzzy, difficult to prove, or impossible to explain with numbers alone, maybe the problem isn't a lack of control.
Perhaps it's the presence of a mafia logic operating behind the scenes.

And that requires a type of investigation that goes far beyond the obvious.

‍