Just after 9 p.m. on Jan. 24, 2020, two American businessmen walked toward a customs desk inside the airport in Manaus, Brazil, a bustling city on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
Frank Giannuzzi and Steven Bellino were New York moneymen. Bellino, then 62, had worked as a Wall Street trader since the 1980s. Giannuzzi, then 39, was an equity trader before he launched a handful of businesses that ranged from financial service companies to an online auction platform.
With gold prices soaring in 2019, the two friends devised a plan to cash in, Bellino would later say in court papers.
Giannuzzi’s Brazilian wife connected them to a local gold trader. There was a meeting in São Paulo. One in New York.
Now, just months after they launched their venture, Bellino and Giannuzzi were striding through the Manaus airport with four canvas bags full of gold and their Brazilian partner at their side.
The Americans were set to catch a flight to New York via Miami, but a team of Brazilian federal police officers was waiting for them. The officers were acting on “intelligence information” that the men were carrying irregular cargo, said Ricardo Livio, a geologist with Brazil’s federal police.
The officers searched their bags and found the treasure: 61 gold bars, weighing 77 pounds. The value: $1.4 million, according to a police report.
The officers scanned the gold with a handheld device used to detect the composition of precious metals. It showed a purity level indicating that it likely came from mining rather than melted jewelry, as stated in the paperwork held by the Brazilian trader, Brubeyk Garcia Nascimento.
The authorities seized the gold, and Nascimento was arrested on charges of trafficking in illicit goods and usurping raw materials that belong to the country.
Bellino and Giannuzzi were detained and questioned but released with no charges. They told Brazilian authorities they had no reason to suspect the gold was illegal.
The incident set off an…
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