PF searches Empiricus and TC headquarters – 06/22/2023 – Market

The headquarters of investment companies Empiricus and TC (formerly Traders Club) were the target of an operation by the PF (Federal Police) on Tuesday (20) as part of an investigation into a video that circulated on social networks in the middle of last year.

Distributed in WhatsApp groups on June 28, 2022, the video shows a woman in clown makeup accusing TC of manipulating stocks traded on the Stock Exchange. According to TC, the insinuations are lies.

At the time, the president of the investment company, Pedro Albuquerque, accused Empiricus of being behind the content. The executive said he had received files obtained from an anonymous source through his investor relations channel that would indicate the involvement of the competitor.

A few days later, on July 8, the TC filed a request for an investigation with the Federal Police regarding the authorship of the video.

Empiricus, in turn, commissioned a technical opinion to contest the accusations. The document says there are “substantial elements to indicate the falsehood” of the images of message exchanges in which company directors allegedly discuss the publication of the anonymous and defamatory video against TC.

At the end of June last year, columnist Lauro Jardim, from the newspaper O Globo, published that TC would be under investigation by the CVM (Securities and Exchange Commission) for alleged manipulation of share prices. On the same day, the company released a statement to the market denying the information.

Sought by the report to talk about the PF action this week, Empiricus said that, since the beginning of the investigation, it has been contributing to the investigation. “The company reaffirms that it has no relation to any criminal offense and remains at the disposal of the authorities,” he said.

The PF said that it does not comment on any ongoing investigations, nor does it disclose or confirm the names of individuals or legal entities investigated.

According to sources accompanying the process, the case is close to being concluded with the identification and accountability of those involved.

When contacted, the TC did not return until the report was published.