[HN Gopher] Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit frau...
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       Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit fraud investigation
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2025-11-21 18:30 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.mongabay.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.mongabay.com)
        
       | vkou wrote:
       | > The police investigation confirmed that two REDD+ project areas
       | were generating carbon credits at the same time they were being
       | used to launder timber taken from other illegally deforested
       | areas.
       | 
       | > Both projects, which cover more than 140,000 hectares (around
       | 350,000 acres), are located in the municipality of Labrea in the
       | south of Amazonas state. The area has been identified as one of
       | the newest and most aggressive deforestation frontiers in the
       | Brazilian Amazon.
       | 
       | > ...led by Elcio Aparecido Moco and Jose Luiz Capelasso.
       | 
       | > In 2017, Moco had been sentenced for timber laundering, but in
       | 2019, another court overruled his sentencing. In 2019, he was
       | also indicted for allegedly bribing two public officials.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | It's strange that a conman doesn't seem to be able to change his
       | spots.
        
         | onionisafruit wrote:
         | Ironically confidence men often get caught when they have too
         | much confidence in themselves.
        
       | staplers wrote:
       | Will they line these people up in the street and kill them like
       | they did to 100+ people for a low-level drug dealer "sweep"?
       | 
       | Something tells me not. The global push toward hyper-violent
       | policing feels one sided class wise.
        
         | vkou wrote:
         | Looking at the track record of everyone involved, they'll be
         | tried, convicted, and released to pull the con off again - but
         | perhaps someone from Brazil can chime in and tell us that
         | something's changed in the past year with respect to white
         | collar crime prosecutions.
        
         | mono442 wrote:
         | Did they even really do anything wrong? This whole emission
         | trading thing is a bordeline scam anyway, they just didn't have
         | the right connections so they weren't allowed to profit from
         | this and got caught.
        
       | nebezb wrote:
       | People have been buying fake carbon credits for a long time.
       | There's very little incentive to validate the authenticity of the
       | credit/offset. The press release is usually all the value they're
       | looking for.
       | 
       | I've only just now heard of someone getting in trouble for
       | selling them. It's about time.
        
         | bryanlarsen wrote:
         | OTOH there are lots of people who are interested in selling
         | genuine carbon credits. They are pressuring governments to
         | clean up this market. It's a hard coordination problem, since
         | we don't have a unified world government. (Thankfully).
        
           | calmbell wrote:
           | There should be a world standard or standards for genuine
           | carbon credits. Maybe the UN could create an agency that
           | determines such a standard and verifies that carbon credits
           | meet that standard.
        
       | shrubble wrote:
       | It's laden with fraud everywhere, sadly. US regulators like SEC
       | have no interest in auditing, from what I've seen. "Spice must
       | flow" attitude.
        
       | worik wrote:
       | I get very frustrated by "carbon credits". This is an example of
       | criminal fraud. But the whole idea is begging for fraud. It is a
       | fraudulent concept from start to finish
       | 
       | Reminds me of the Catholic's concept of "indulgences". Sin the
       | sins, pay a fee, and go to heaven.
       | 
       | In this case the "sins", and the sinners, are burning the world
       | for profit
        
       | cheschire wrote:
       | Remember how people used to talk about the environment and stuff,
       | back before AI made everyone turn a hard 180?
       | 
       | What place do carbon credits even have anymore in this economy?
        
         | mono442 wrote:
         | European Union forces some sectors to buy permits for co2
         | emissions.
        
         | Natsu wrote:
         | A lot of pro-environment people are reconsidering nuclear these
         | days and were even before things like AI started demanding more
         | electricity because it doesn't involve burning more
         | hydrocarbons.
        
       | _trampeltier wrote:
       | Don't are they all? It would be almost more newsworthy if
       | somebody could present a bit bigger serious carbon credit thing.
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-21 23:01 UTC)