Former Richest Man in Brazil Offers Gold Coins Worth US$170k to Afro-Brazilian Deity Yemanja in a Bid To Return to Former Glory, by Julio Severo. He tossed over about US$ 170,000 in gold coins onto the waves off the coast of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach last month, after a medium and a priest of the Umbanda religion advised he needed to appease a water-bound deity Yemanja, known in Brazil as the queen of the seas. Brazilian Catholics are often syncretic, openly going to Mass on Sundays, but secretly going to Afro-Brazilian rituals on Friday.