Bolsonaro says he sent R$800,000 to the US due to Lula’s “doubts about politics and economics”

Former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) confirmed that he transferred R$800,000 from Brazil to an account in the United States because he had “doubts about the politics and economy” of the Lula government. On a video published on social media, on Thursday night (15), the former president highlighted that the transfer “is not a crime” and said that, in 2023, “Brazilians sent US$2.1 billion out of the country”. Bolsonaro is being investigated by the Federal Police, in Operation Tempus Veritatis, for an alleged attempt to articulate a coup plan.

“I sent it, yes [os R$ 800 mil], from my savings from Banco do Brasil to BB America, that is, it continued in a Brazilian bank”, he said. “The last country in the world where a coup plotter, a dictator, would send resources would be the United States, because it is a democratic country that respects treaties. These resources would be immediately blocked,” he added.

The PF pointed out that the former president had sent the amount abroad to supposedly await the developments of a coup d’état. “It is clear that the then president Jair Bolsonaro, at the end of his term, transferred all his assets and financial resources, illicit and legal, to the United States, with the purpose of ensuring his permanence abroad, possibly awaiting the outcome of the attempt. of a coup d’état that was in progress”, says the PF report.

The transfer was carried out on December 27, 2022, three days later the former president left for the United States. However, the fact is not new – it had already been detected by the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) and widely reported in July 2023.

At the time, the former president’s defense had already argued that he sent his money abroad because he did not trust the PT government’s economic policy. “In 2023 alone, Brazilians sent US$2.1 billion abroad, this is not a crime. Just like me, they had doubts about the politics and economy of the current left-wing president,” Bolsonaro pointed out in the video released this Thursday (15). In the post, the former president classified the disclosure of the bank transfer as “another fake news with an orchestrated leak” to discredit him.