Draft:Marcelo Conde

• Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest guideline, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. Jmcfconde (talk) 18:26, 27 September 2026 (UTC)

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Marcelo Fernandez Conde is a Brazilian businessman active in the Real Estate and Energy sectors. He is the eldest son of former mayor and vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro Luiz Paulo Fernandez Conde. In 2026, Conde became the subject of Operation Exfil, a Federal Police investigation in Brazil concerning the alleged unauthorized access and disclosure of confidential tax information.

Career

Real Estate Activity

Marcelo has been involved in large-scale projects, and past sports sponsorships (e.g., Botafogo, Fluminense and Santos). His family has long been involved in commercial residential and hospitality developments in Rio de Janeiro and other states of Brazil. His Real Estate business activities were conducted in most part through Grupo ST, subsidiaries STA and STX as well as other project-specific vehicles. When his father went into Politics in the 1990s, Marcelo became the head of the Real Estate family business. For decades the focus of the group has been on Hotel and tourism related residential developments.

Marcelo Conde lobbied for the Tourism sector and for the legalization of Casino’s in Brazil, advocating for a mega project sponsored by Israeli-American businessman Sheldon Adelson.

Iberdrola and Caetité

Conde was involved in the development of wind-energy projects in northeastern Brazil, including land in Caetité, Bahia, that was subsequently developed for wind-power generation by Iberdrola.

In 2012, Força Eólica do Brasil, a joint venture between Iberdrola and Neoenergia, secured R$378 million in BNDES financing for five wind farms in northeastern Brazil, including projects in Caetité, Bahia, with a combined planned capacity of 150 MW.

The Caetité complex ultimately comprised the Caetité I, II and III wind farms, each with an installed capacity of 30 MW. Iberdrola subsequently acquired full control of the Força Eólica do Brasil companies holding the projects.

Marcelo Conde’s father was appointed by President Lula as president of FURNAS state energy Company and presided the company during 2007-2008.

Tumarín Project

During the late 2000s and 2010s, Conde was involved in the development of the Tumarín hydroelectric project in Nicaragua. He served as president of Centrales Hidroeléctricas de Centroamérica (CHC), the company that developed the project, and subsequently as president of its Nicaraguan subsidiary, Centrales Hidroeléctricas de Nicaragua (CHN). CHC and CHN were subsidiary of Brazilian State Energy Company Eletrobras in a JV with Queiroz Galvão Contractor.

Tumarín was planned as a major hydroelectric facility on the Río Grande de Matagalpa in Nicaragua’s South Caribbean region. Initial plans envisaged generation of approximately 220 megawatts, with subsequent technical studies increasing the projected capacity to approximately 250 megawatts.

As president of CHC and CHN, Conde represented the project in negotiations with the Nicaraguan government and Brazilian institutions. He publicly discussed the project’s financing, construction timetable, electricity-generation capacity and environmental and social measures. In 2010, he said the project was expected to require investment of approximately US$600 million and to receive financing from Brazilian and multilateral development institutions.

The project also involved negotiations concerning the acquisition and compensation of land affected by the planned reservoir. Conde announced measures to compensate affected landowners and residents and described plans for environmental mitigation, including reforestation around the reservoir.

The project faced significant scrutiny during the Dilma Rousseff government due to the financing coming from Brazil national development bank ( BNDES ) and the Nicaraguan government was considered a dictatorship by many countries. Eletrobras eventually divested from the project in 2016 and sold it.

Legal Proceedings

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Operation Exfil

In April 2026, Conde became the subject of Operation Exfil, a Federal Police investigation into the alleged unauthorized access and disclosure of confidential tax information belonging to public officials and other individuals. According to the Supreme Federal Court, investigators identified individual taxpayers whose information had allegedly been accessed, including individuals connected to members of the court and other public officials.

Conde was the target of search-and-seizure warrants and a preventive arrest order, with investigators alleging that he was involved in financing the acquisition of the information.

Conde’s defense denied the allegations and challenged the participation of Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the proceedings, citing the inclusion of Moraes’s wife among the individuals whose information was allegedly obtained.

Following the issuance of a preventive arrest order in Brazil, Conde presented himself voluntarily to the Spanish authorities and remained in Spain while Brazilian authorities pursued his extradition. His defense stated that he had surrendered to the Spanish authorities and disputed his characterization as a fugitive. In August 2026, Spain’s National Court (Audiencia Nacional) ordered his provisional release, subject to periodic reporting requirements, while Brazil’s extradition request remained under consideration.