Linhagem do fabricante
Mude - the distributor at the centre of Operacao Persona
Brazilian Cisco importer investigated from 2007 in a federal foreign-trade fraud case.
Mude Comercio e Servicos Ltda was the Brazilian importer of Cisco equipment at the centre of Operacao Persona, a joint action by the federal prosecution service, federal police and tax authority launched on 16 October 2007. This entry reports what the cited sources report and does not reach beyond them.
The alleged mechanism, as described by the prosecution service, is worth understanding because it is a distribution structure rather than a hacking one. Goods moved from the manufacturer in the United States to the real importer in Brazil through a chain of front companies, controlled through nominees and offshore entities in Panama, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands, which simulated purchases and resales among themselves. That concealed both the true recipient and the price actually paid, and the under-invoicing is what reduced the tax due on import.
The operation itself was large. Six hundred and fifty agents, forty-four arrest orders and ninety-three search warrants across three states in a single day.
The outcome must be stated precisely, because a case is not a verdict and a first-instance verdict is not the end. In February 2011 a federal judge convicted six directors and executives of the company, imposing five years and two months for contrabando or descaminho and for criminal association, and acquitted them of the charge of using false documents. Six other defendants were acquitted of all charges, among them a former Cisco executive, one of the company’s partners, its lawyer and three employees. The prosecution appealed against the acquittals. A separate money-laundering action followed in 2016.
The reported sums differ between sources and no single figure is asserted here. The tax authority’s calculation of unpaid tax is given as R$1.5 billion in the prosecution service’s own release and as R$3.4 billion including fines in other reporting; the sentence put the fraudulent imports above US$370 million, while police statements at the time referred to US$500 million declared. Court references also vary between the fourth and fifth federal chambers in Sao Paulo.
It is on this timeline for one reason. A great deal of the equipment that built Brazilian networks arrived through importers, and how it arrived was a commercial question with legal consequences that the technical literature never discusses. This is the case where that became a matter of public record.
The registered name was Mude Comercio e Servicos Ltda, an IT products distributor with a branch in the United States. Equipment left Florida and most of it was routed to Bahia, where state law offered incentives to technology companies - a destination chosen for the tax treatment rather than the customers.
Operacao Persona was launched on 16 October 2007 by the federal police, the tax authority and the federal prosecution service. It produced 44 arrest warrants across Sao Paulo, Salvador, Campinas, Rio, Ilheus and Santos, of which 40 were executed within a day. The alleged unpaid tax was around 1.5 billion reais; the fraudulent imports were later put at more than 370 million dollars across sixteen identified operations. Three tax auditors were subsequently dismissed over their involvement.
The mechanism was interposed companies - a chain of intermediaries in Brazil and the United States whose function was to conceal who was really importing. That is what gave the operation its name: a persona is a mask. The tax authority
- Senate archive of O Estado de S. Paulo, 19 October 2007: Mude was a Brazilian company with a US branch intermediating Cisco imports; goods left Florida, most destined for Bahia, where state law gives incentives to IT companies
- CARF administrative ruling 3301-012.149: the tax authority treated Mude as the REAL importer and therefore as an industrial establishment for IPI purposes, with joint liability across the group
- Ministerio Publico Federal, Procuradoria da Republica em Sao Paulo - official release on Operacao Persona: the transactions ran between the United States manufacturer Cisco Systems Inc and the real importer in Brazil, Mude Comercio e Servicos Ltda, intermediated by a series of front companies controlled through nominees and offshore entities; those firms simulated purchases and resales among themselves to conceal the true recipient and the amount actually paid, and under-invoicing of the sales allowed the Brazilian companies in the scheme to evade the taxes due on the real price; by the tax authority’s calculation the total unpaid amounted to R$1.5 billion. The release also records that in 2011 the Federal Court sentenced two of those involved to more than five years
The release is cited at its Jusbrasil mirror because the MPF's own copy is gone: mpf.mp.br now answers that page with its portal error, “O endereco acessado nao existe ou foi alterado durante a atualizacao do portal”, confirmed by a second client on 2026-09-27. The mirror reproduces the release in full and carries MORE than was previously cited from it: the two defendants named as the businessman Cid Guardia Filho and the retired tax auditor Ernani Bertino Maciel, R$33.5 million concealed in fraudulent operations between 2004 and 2008, the laundering done through simulated service contracts and profit distributions and two properties in Ilheus, Bahia registered to front companies, the prosecutor Rodrigo de Grandis, and case number 0012366-26.2006.403.6181. Note that the 2011 sentence it records, of more than five years for descaminho AND use of false documents, is against these two men and is a different proceeding from the six Mude executives in the citation below, who were acquitted of the false-documents charge.
- Exame, February 2011 - the Federal Court convicted six businessmen and executives accused of belonging to a criminal organisation importing Cisco Systems products through interposed companies to conceal the real importer, Mude Comercio e Servicos Ltda; the 152-page sentence put the fraudulent imports above US$370 million and imposed 5 years and 2 months for contrabando or descaminho across 16 identified operations
- Consultor Juridico, October 2007 - preventive detentions ordered in Operacao Persona, which examined the conduct of Cisco do Brasil and Mude in assembling a chain of companies based in the United States and Brazil for foreign-trade frauds
- Consultor Juridico, February 2011 - the operation involved 650 agents of the federal prosecution service, federal police and tax authority; the action in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia executed 44 arrest orders and 93 search warrants on 16 October 2007; offshore entities in Panama, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands were used, with shareholders of low means; six were convicted and six acquitted
- Jusbrasil, reporting the federal prosecution service - the six convicted received 5 years and 2 months in closed regime for contrabando or descaminho and criminal association, and were acquitted of the charge of using false documents; a former Cisco executive, one of Mude’s partners, the company’s lawyer and three employees were acquitted of all charges; the prosecution appealed seeking conviction of those acquitted
- CARF administrative ruling 3301-012.149, the tax authority's own record, refers to the company's constitution in 2002. No year is asserted beyond the one the ruling states