Governor's sons partner with tax credit firm; office denies conflict

The sons of São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, Letícia Ferreira de Freitas and Matheus Ferreira de Freitas, have recently entered into a business partnership with a Bahian entrepreneur. In June, they became partners in RB Par Ltda, a business management consultancy, forming a new holding company named BR Invest. This move places them in association with a family business, Lex Tax and All Tax, which focuses on tax credit consulting and recovery.

Matheus Ferreira de Freitas, 27, and Letícia Ferreira de Freitas, 19, established their own company, Ferreira de Freitas Participações, in February. Registered as a microenterprise, it has Matheus holding 51% of the shares and Letícia holding 49%. Both listed their address as the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, the official residence of the governor. Their new venture, BR Invest, established in June, has a capital of R$60,000, with R$20,000 already contributed, divided equally between Ferreira de Freitas Participações and RB Par Ltda.

RB Par Ltda is managed by Rodrigo Barbosa de Sousa, 27, who also co-administers BR Invest with Matheus. Rodrigo's father, Luciano Santos de Sousa, controls Lex Tax and All Tax. Luciano, a former Undersecretary of Finance in Bahia, is the managing partner of Lex Tax and co-CEO of All Tax. Rodrigo had listed his involvement with Lex Tax on his LinkedIn profile, but removed the information after the partnership involving the governor's sons was revealed.

In response to the revelations, Tarcísio de Freitas and one of the company controllers issued a statement asserting that the business activities of the companies and the governor's son do not present a conflict of interest. The governor's sons, who generally maintain a low public profile, have made rare appearances with their parents and do not maintain public social media pages.