Empiricus

Empiricus Research is a consulting company specialized in selling information through newsletters. It is a partnerhip of American company The Agora, with Brazilian enterpreneurs Caio Mesquita, Felipe Miranda and Rodolfo Amstalden. It currently has 180,000 subscribers for its newsletters. It owns 50% of the website O Antagonista in a partnership with Diogo Mainardi and Mário Sabino.

Their creators defend the “politically incorrect” and employ polemic promotion strategies. Empiricus received attention after the video “O Fim do Brasil” (The End of Brazil, 2014), sponsored for social media views and Google Ads, where they predicted a disastrous outcome for the national economy and attacked the policies of Dilma Roussef’s government. The video was a Brazilian version of the play “End of America” of American Stransberry Research (also owned by The Agora group).

Among Empiricus promotion strategies are payed ads at Google and Facebook. The themes designed to attract customers often deal with political matters. Among the examples are “Se proteja se a Dilma ganhar” (“Protect yourself if Dilma wins”) and “E se o Aécio Neves ganhar? Que ações devem subir se o Aécio ganhar a eleição?” (“What if Aécio Neves wins? Which stocks should go up if Aécio wins the elections?”) These advertisement pieces, produced during the elections period, were judicially suspended, due to their electoral impact, but the suspension was withdrawn in a TSE (Electoral Supreme Court), after a recommendation by Supreme Court Judge Gilmar Mendes. In another occasion, Empiricus used a banner of former Petrobras president Graça Foster with the question “Trunfo ou Mico? É hora de comprar?” (“Trump or shame? Is it time to buy?”) and, close to Roussef’s impeachment, “Onde investir se a Dilma sair” (“Where to invest if Dilma leaves”).

Empiricus offers free bulletins (“Mercado em cinco minutos” - “Market in five minutes”) and monthly subscription of paid bulletins, with different plans. With their newsletters business, the subscribers of O Antagonista newsletter were strategic for the group, according to Felipe Miranda.

In 2012 Empiricus was sentenced by Apimec (Financial Market Investment Professionals and Analysts Association) for having called the Investor Relations director of Marfrig a “stuck-up executive and phony enologist” . Other internet ads like “LUCRE 41 POR CENTO EM APENAS 40 DIAS” (“41% PROFIT IN 40 DAYS”) and “COMO TRANSFORMAR R$ 1.000 EM MAIS DE R$ 150.000 EM 32 DIAS” (“HOW TO MAKE R$1,000 IN OVER R$150,000 IN 32 DAYS”) were sued at CVM (Securities and Exchange Comission) and at Apimec, besides being publicly investigated by the MPF (General Attorney’s Office).

The Agora, holding and shareholder controller of Empiricus was funded in1978 and is based in Baltimore (US). It operates a network of publications about finance, health, travels and other themes, with a particular focus on newsletters.

There is some symbolism in the association of both companies names. Sextus Empiricus was a greek philosopher who lived around the 2nd century and became renowned as main systematizer of pyrrhonic scepticism which “involves not having any beliefs about philosophical, scientific or theoretical issues – and, according to some interpreters, not having any beliefs at all.”