The inmate is arrested after faking his own death in an attempt to escape from prison

Former auditor Arnaldo Augusto Pereira, convicted of involvement in the São Paulo municipality’s ISS mafia system, admitted paying R$45,000 for a fake death certificate in an attempt to escape prison.

The fraud was discovered after investigations by the Public Ministry of Bahia, which located the former server in the municipality of Mucuri, on the coast of Bahia, where he lived under a possibly false identity. He was captured during a police operation on 15 October 2025.

Pereira said he made the payment in cash to a person who intermediated the purchase of the document at a notary’s office.

By his account, the process even involved creating an email in the name of his wife, who he said was unaware of the scam.

To make the project possible, the former auditor traveled approximately 13 hours from Mucuri to Salvador, where, as he stated, he maintained contact with those who “sold these types of documents”.

In an interview with Fantástico, on TV Globo, the former servant said he acted “in a moment of desperation” to prevent the sentence from becoming final. “When you take on an attitude of desperation, you can’t think rationally,” he said.

The fake certificate was signed by Dr. Sérgio Ricardo, who worked at the Forensic Medical Institute of Salvador.

The doctor’s defense claimed that he did not know Arnaldo and that the document was signed remotely, based only on a video and a medical report. This procedure is considered illegal.

Pereira was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2019 for corruption and money laundering, accused of participating in the scheme that stole more than R$500 million from the coffers of São Paulo municipality between 2007 and 2013.

The Public Prosecutor of São Paulo highlighted that he received bribes of R$1.1 million to allow the construction of a residential project in Santo André.

At the time he held the position of Undersecretary for Collection, an important position within the municipal administrative structure. The former auditor admitted having received the undue sum. “I feel embarrassed, but it would be much more embarrassing for me to deny it,” he said.

His former lawyers withdrew the case because they believed they had been misled by their client. The current defense, led by Eduardo Maurício, has reported that it is awaiting judgment on the case at the Superior Court of Justice, the STJ.

According to the MP-BA, the former civil servant began living inconspicuously after faking his own death in an attempt to halt the progress of the criminal case and avoid confiscation of assets that had been blocked by the courts.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo had requested preventive detention after discovering the registration of the false certificate in the records.

Pereira had already been arrested previously in 2019 and 2021, with sentences of over 45 years in prison. In addition to lying in the plea agreement, he is accused of leading part of the group that took bribes to issue ISS discharge certificates for mid- and high-end real estate projects between 2009 and 2011.

It is estimated that more than 400 projects, including condominiums, shopping centers and hospitals, have benefited from the program.

The scam consisted of artificially reducing the value of the Service Tax – ISS – payable by construction companies and developers, in exchange for direct payments to auditors or companies associated with them.

Without paying taxes, companies would not receive the Habite-se, an essential document to allow the occupation of properties.

Now, in addition to previous convictions for corruption and money laundering, Arnaldo Pereira will also have to answer for falsification of public documents and other crimes linked to the attempt to fake his own death.