Chief of Revenue who carried out investigation under Bolsonaro is fired – 10/05/2023 – Power

The head of intelligence at the Federal Revenue at the beginning of the administration Jair Bolsonaro (PL) was fired from his public position as tax auditor this Thursday (5) by decision of Fernando Haddad (Treasury).

Ordinance signed by the minister and published in the Official Gazette of the Union states that Ricardo Pereira Feitosa used his position “to gain personal benefit or that of others, to the detriment of the dignity of the public service”. By law, he cannot obtain a new investiture in federal public office for a period of five years.

A Sheet revealed in February this year that in 2019 Feitosa, then head of intelligence at the Revenue, unmotivatedly accessed and copied confidential tax data from the coordinator of investigations into the alleged “rachadinhas” scheme (the then Attorney General of Rio Eduardo Gussem ) and two politicians who had broken with the Bolsonaro family, businessman Paulo Marinho and former minister Gustavo Bebianno.

In a second report, the Sheet showed that the then head of Revenue went to Palácio do Planalto the day before starting the illegal raid and returned to the place on the day he completed the work, specifically going to the office of Augusto Heleno, then minister of the Institutional Security Office of the Presidency of the Republic .

On these days, there is no record on Bolsonaro’s or General Heleno’s official public agenda of a commitment with Ricardo Pereira Feitosa, who coordinated the Tax Authority’s Research and Investigation sector from May to September 2019.

After the case was revealed, the Federal Police opened an investigation.

The case of the investigation into the data of Bolsonaro’s enemies began to be investigated by the Revenue in a preliminary procedure, in January 2020, still during the Bolsonaro government.

In a second stage, an investigative inquiry was launched in March of the same year, which concluded with the opening of a PAD (Disciplinary Administrative Process).

The PAD, which is the most serious phase of administrative procedures in civil service, with penalties ranging from a warning to dismissal from public service, recommended Feitosa’s dismissal from public service. The final decision rests with the Minister of Finance.

A Sheet He sought out Feitosa and his defense this Thursday morning and is awaiting positioning. In previous demonstrations, they denied that there had been any illegal use of tax data.

Augusto Heleno stated, also in a previous statement, that he was never aware of illegal accesses at the IRS and said he did not remember meetings with Feitosa on the dates coinciding with the illegal accesses.

Bolsonaro published a reproduction of the report title on his social networks at the time the case was revealed, adding the inscription “fake news”.

Documents obtained by Sheet at the beginning of this year and testimony from people directly related to the case show that Ricardo Pereira Feitosa unmotivatedly accessed the data on the 10th, 16th and 18th of July 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022).

There was no formal investigation underway at the IRS against these three people.

Prosecutor Eduardo Gussem headed the Public Ministry of the state of Rio de Janeiro from 2017 to January 2021, a period in which the body received, during investigation, a report produced by Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council) indicating atypical financial transactions by Fabrício Queiroz , former advisor to Flávio Bolsonaro in the Legislative Assembly of Rio.

Marinho and Bebbiano, who became close friends, participated in the command of Bolsonaro’s campaign in 2018.

The first gave up his mansion in Rio’s Botanical Garden to be the campaign’s headquarters and recording studio, having also integrated and been elected the first alternate senator on Flávio Bolsonaro’s ticket.

The second coordinated the captain’s presidential campaign, as he liked to call Bolsonaro, and later became minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency.

Both, however, broke or distanced themselves from Bolsonaro at the beginning of their administration. Bebianno died in March 2020, victim of a heart attack, according to his family.

The documents and information obtained by Sheet show that the head of Revenue intelligence accessed and extracted copies of attorney Eduardo Gussem’s complete Income Tax declarations for seven years — 2013 to 2019.

The Public Ministry of Rio denounced Flávio and Queiroz in October 2020, but the case took turns in favor of the senator, with the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) annulling in 2021 all decisions taken by the first instance of Justice.

From Bebianno, IR data for seven years, from 2013 to 2019, were also accessed and extracted.

Marinho had the IRs from 2008 to 2019 accessed (with the exception of 2012) and copied. His wife, Adriana, from 2010 to 2013.

The then head of Revenue intelligence searched data from Bolsonaro’s enemies in three other confidential Revenue systems, one that brings together assets and financial operations of special interest to the Tax Authorities, one for foreign trade and an integrated platform fed by 29 different databases.

In the foreign trade system, there was also access to the company ABM Consultoria, which has Marinho’s wife as managing partner.

Ricardo Feitosa worked at the Revenue office in Cuiabá before taking on the role of national head of intelligence at the agency, on May 21, 2019.

On September 23 of that same year, that is, after only four months in the role, he was dismissed from his position and transferred to Customs at Brasília International Airport. Afterwards, he served as tax auditor for the customs administration of the Revenue in Cuiabá.

In 2020, Flávio Bolsonaro’s defense mobilized several bodies from his father’s government precisely under the claim that there was a scheme of illegal access to his tax data, which would have supported the production of the Coaf Financial Intelligence Report that triggered the case of the “cracks”.

The IRS even requested an investigation into its systems to try to identify illegal access to the tax data of the president, his three political sons, his two ex-wives and the first lady, Michelle.

As also revealed by the Sheet, from October 2020 to February 2021, the agency also mobilized a team of five employees for four months to investigate the accusation made by Flávio. The conclusion was that there was no evidence of illegal acts by auditors against the Bolsonaro clan.

Feitosa’s case generated an internal conflict between the then inspector of the Federal Revenue, João José Tafner, and the current head of the agency, Robinson Barreirinhas.

Tafner, who took office in January 2022 at the hands of the Bolsonaro family, made an internal complaint that he had suffered pressure from the former tax authorities in the investigation against the agency’s former head of intelligence.

Barreirinhas ordered an investigation against Tafner for a possible act of malfeasance, as he did not report the case or take action at the time of the alleged pressure. The then inspector asked for dismissal.