ser laranja

Portuguese

Meaning

to be a front man, to lend one's name for illegal or fraudulent activities

Example

Descobriram que ele era laranja de um esquema de corrupção.

They found out he was a front man for a corruption scheme.

Origin

The origin of laranja ("orange") as slang for a fraud proxy is genuinely disputed — linguists say pinning it down with certainty is close to impossible.

The leading theories: a 1970s pyramid scheme among political prisoners, where a limão ("lemon") recruited unwitting laranjas who rarely saw their money again; police slang for suspects who gave up accomplices once pressured; and a rumoured 1980s scandal involving orange growers used as fronts in a bank fraud. Whichever theory is right, the term stuck through Brazil's biggest corruption investigations and is now standard legal and media vocabulary.

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Source: História do Mundo — laranjas.

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