Text stringer Diane Jeantet, senior cameraman Mario Lobão and photo stringer Bruna Prado, all based in Brazil, traveled to Cabo Frio, a tourist city a couple hours north of Rio de Janeiro which has been wracked with problems and violence following a surge of Bitcoin pyramid schemes. Their trip followed Brazil’s federal police bust last April of three people loading a chopper with $1.3 million in neatly packed bills.
Jeantet obtained hundreds of police and prosecutors’ reports regarding the alleged pyramid scheme run by the town’s top dog, Glaidson dos Santos. She sorted through the reports, crafting a gripping narrative of the man's rise to power and fortune, and his eventual imprisonment. But she also discovered the story was more complex, with many of the man’s former clients swearing that dos Santos was being wrongly accused for having the audacity to beat a rigged financial system at its own game.
Such nuance gave the reader an inside look at why Bitcoin has become hugely popular in Brazil. Video journalist Tatiana Pollastri used the team’s material to produce a strong video piece, while he text story was published in English, Spanish and Portuguese, picked up by publications from USA Today to The Times of India.
Gilson Silva do Carmo, an alleged victim of the G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm, walks off after an interview in Iguaba Grande, Brazil, Dec. 15, 2021. Police and prosecutors accuse the firm of running a sophisticated racket defrauding thousands of small-scale investors who believed they were getting rich off Bitcoin’s steep appreciation. Do Carmo watched in horror as the seizures and arrests unfolded; he had invested his savings in the company just weeks earlier.
AP Photo / Bruna Prado
Mayor Jose Bonifacio listens during an interview at his City Hall office in Cabo Frio, Brazil, Dec. 15, 2021. Bonifacio acknowledged his city found itself under the spell of cryptocurrency. “The talk of the town was to know how much (bitcoin) was at, who was giving a bigger return,” he said.
AP Photo / Bruna Prado
Beachgoers congregate on Fort Beach in Cabo Frio, Brazil, Dec. 15, 2021. G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by Glaidson Acacio dos Santos, a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who is the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil’s biggest-ever pyramid schemes, was based in the beach town dos Santos called home.
AP Photo / Bruna Prado