Cities without oil production receive millionaire royalties, says newspaper

At least 21 cities in the states of Amazonas, Pará and Alagoas would have already received R$ 125 million in royalties for the extraction of oil and gas even without producing with authorization from the judges of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1), according to an investigation by the newspaper The state of Sao Paulo Published this Tuesday (25).

According to the report, the processes would have been conducted by a lobbyist convicted of embezzlement and investigated for money laundering, who would have coordinated newly graduated lawyers with no experience in the sector. The group would have already billed BRL 25.7 million in fees with the scheme.

Among the cities benefiting from the undue payment of royalties is Barra de São Miguel (AL), administered by Mayor Benedito de Lira (PP-AL), father of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The newspaper found that the lobbyist Rubens de Oliveira was in Lira’s office two months before the resources that were blocked began to be released. With the decision, the city earned BRL 14.5 million as if it had an “oil and gas loading and unloading facility” even without having one. Until then, he received around R$ 237,000 for just being in an oil production zone.

A People’s Gazette sought Lira’s personal office, the Chamber of Deputies and the TRF1, but did not receive a response until the closing of the report. The prefecture of Barra de São Miguel was also contacted by the Estadãobut did not speak.

Another city benefiting from the scheme was the Amazon municipality of Nhamundá, which managed to receive R$ 15.2 million in royalties without having any type of oil and gas production.

Money leaves producing states in the Southeast

According to the assessment of Estadão Over 13,500 pages of lawsuits, Oliveira works by convincing mayors to hire individual law firms controlled by him to claim, in the Federal Court of Brasilia, the right to high amounts of financial compensation with oil royalties, effectively paid to producing states such as Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo.

In exchange, the group earns 20% of everything that cities collect from court decisions, even if the sentences are overturned later. The fees are divided between the lobbyist, his wife – who owns a breakfast basket shop – and his cousin, in addition to the lawyers.

Favorable decisions would have been given by judges Carlos Augusto Pires Brandão; Daniele Maranhão and Antônio Souza Prudente. TRF1 did not respond to questions in the report.