Gilmar annuls PF evidence involving Lira’s allies – 09/23/2023 – Power

Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), annulled on Thursday (21) all evidence from more than eight months of investigations by the Federal Police into purchases of robotics kits with public money involving allies of the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

Gilmar had already annulled, in July, everything related to Lira. He thus prevented the matter from being brought to the judgment of other ministers of the court.

Now it has also extended this benefit individually to all those investigated, including businesspeople linked to Lira, his closest advisor, a councilor from Maceió, people identified as oranges, a former employee of the MEC (Ministry of Education) and operators.

The investigation began after the Sheet publish, in April 2022, reports that indicated irregularities in the purchase of robotic kits by cities in Alagoas. All city halls had contracts with the same company in Maceió, Megalic, owned by a family close to Lira.

The purchases took place with money from the FNDE (National Education Development Fund), released at an unusual speed. The resources were linked to rapporteur amendments, a billion-dollar part of the budget that was controlled by Lira.

With Gilmar Mendes’ decision, all documentary evidence, recordings, seizures of documents and cash collected by the PF over more than eight months of investigations were annulled.

The PF began the investigation by tracking million-dollar financial transactions between the owners of the robotics company and other people. In this way, operators filmed money deliveries to the house of a Lira aide and the seizure of a safe full of money.

The safe, with R$4.4 million, was at the address of a civil police officer. In his name there is a pickup truck used to deliver money to the politician’s advisor and which had also been used in Lira’s campaign, as the Sheet revealed.

This investigation resulted in operation Hefesto, launched in June. Lira’s name only appeared in the investigation from then on — after eight months of investigation. In the same month, the PF referred the case to the STF because of the jurisdiction.

When carrying out search and seizure warrants in the Hefesto operation, the PF found lists of payments related to Lira’s private and political life. These lists were with this Lira advisor, called Luciano Cavalcante, and his driver.

The PF also discovered, in possession of cell phones seized in the operation, that Cavalcante was part of a WhatsApp group called “Gerenciamento Robótica” with Roberta Lins Costa Melo, a partner at Megalic alongside her husband Edmundo Catunda — Lira’s ally and father of the Maceió councilor João Catunda (PP).

A Sheet showed that Cavalcante was together with Edmundo Catunda, on the same day and time, at the FNDE headquarters. Catunda and his children had a constant presence at the organ.

Although the investigators only arrived at Lira’s name after the police operation began in June, Gilmar Mendes argued, in the decision, that it was up to the STF to authorize the investigation because the reports already cited the president of the Chamber.

“The decision recognized the inadmissibility of the evidence produced during the investigations, due to the usurpation of the jurisdiction of the Federal Supreme Court”, says a note from the STF. According to this understanding, the investigation should only have started with authorization from the court because Lira has a privileged forum.

“The police authority deliberately avoided mentioning the name of the Federal Deputy, despite the news attached to the inquiry having mentioned the name of this authority no less than 27 (twenty-seven) times and showing his image on 7 (seven) separate occasions “, says the supreme’s note.

Seven cities in Alagoas received R$26 million from the federal government for these purchases. This represented almost 70% of all resources transferred by the MEC body to the entire country under a specific heading.

A Sheet showed, last year, that the registration minutes used in purchases had signs of fraud and targeting and the chosen company purchased the equipment for R$2.7 thousand and sold it to city halls for R$14 thousand. This information was corroborated in the PF investigation.

The report from Sheet was in cities in Alagoas and found that the devices were being directed to cities with schools without infrastructure, without internet and even without water. The education secretary of one of the cities confirmed Lira’s intervention to release the resources and the role of an advisor linked to councilor João Catunda, son of the owner of Megalic, in the bureaucratic procedures.

The TCU (Federal Audit Court) and the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union) also identified irregularities. In April last year, the TCU suspended purchases based on the Folha report and then, in April this year, concluded that there had been fraud.

According to Gilmar’s decision, the PF investigation must be closed. He noted, according to the STF note, that there is the possibility of reopening the investigations, “if new evidence emerges.”
Lira’s defense was already expecting this new decision from Gilmar Mendes after, in July, he had already unilaterally annulled everything related to Lira.