Lira’s advisor and kit supplier went to MEC together – 06/26/2023 – Politics

The closest adviser to Arthur Lira (PP-AL), president of the Chamber of Deputies, and the partner of the company that supplies robotics kits to Alagoas city halls were together in the MEC (Ministry of Education) body responsible for releasing the money that supplied the purchases under investigation by the Federal Police.

The two are investigated by the PF and were targeted in operations earlier this month.

Luciano Cavalcante, one of the most trusted people in Lira, and Edmundo Catunda, partner of the company Megalic, were received on the morning of February 3, 2021 at the headquarters of the FNDE (National Fund for the Development of Education), during the Jair Bolsonaro government ( PL).

Cavalcante checked into the building, in Brasília, at 8:11 am, and Catunda, at 8:15 am, according to official data obtained by the Sheet through the Freedom of Information Act.

Part of Catunda’s visits to the FNDE coincide both with the release of funds and with meetings with Lira. The mayor was contacted and declined to comment.

The PF has already found documents with Luciano mentioning Lira and a list of payments linked to the name “Arthur”. The seized document lists BRL 834,000 in amounts paid in 2022 and 2023, such as the Sheet showed this Sunday (25) —of this total, at least R$ 650,000 has the name “Arthur” at the front of the value.

Luciano was part of the WhatsApp group called “Robótica Gestão”, which included Megalic partner Roberta Lins, a woman from Catunda. The police investigation also discovered that the businessman transferred R$ 550,000 to the company that built the house where Luciano lives.

Luciano is known as one of the people closest to Lira, a company with a variety of agendas and trips. In 2021, when he was at the FNDE, he was linked to the Leadership of the PP in the Chamber, Lira’s party – he was exonerated at the beginning of the month, after being searched and apprehended by the Federal Police.

The FNDE entry record reinforces the proximity between the two investigated and also shows that the group had good traffic in the body during the Bolsonaro government. That was the only date that Luciano would have been at the FNDE in the period, but Edmundo Catunda was a constant presence at the organ.

The businessman, whose family is related to Lira, was 29 times at the FNDE from early February 2021 to March 24, 2022.

In April 2022, the Sheet revealed that the government had earmarked BRL 26 million for seven cities in Alagoas to buy robotic kits despite suffering from serious infrastructure deficiencies.

All cities had contracts with the same company, Megalic, owned by Edmundo Catunda and Roberta Lins. Federal resources, released and transferred at unusual speed, were the so-called rapporteur’s amendments, a billionaire part of the Union budget controlled by Lira.

The FNDE was transformed, under Bolsonaro, into a kind of political counter, with the predominance of releases of resources without technical criteria.

Control of the body was given to centrão politicians – it was presided over between June 2020 and December 2022 by Marcelo Lopes da Ponte, former advisor to Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI). The former president of the FNDE did not respond to questions in the report.

Edmundo Catunda also did not respond to the Sheet. The team of lawyer Eugênio Aragão, who represents Megalic, said that his work does not extend to Catunda as an individual. The defense denies any wrongdoing committed by the company.

Lawyer André Callegari, who defends Luciano, stated that “he was rarely at the FNDE to deal exclusively with matters of the political party”. In other manifestations, there was a denial that Luciano had relations with Megalic.

In addition to Catunda, one of his sons, João Pedro Loureiro Pessoa Catunda, 23, was also frequently at the organ in the same period. He visited the FNDE 23 times, nine times with his father. He was linked to the office of another deputy from Alagoas, Marx Beltrão, a supporter of Lira in the PP.

Beltrão, who has close relations with the Catunda family, employed João Pedro as an advisor between May 31, 2021 and December 2022. Of the 23 times he was at the FNDE, in 19 of them João Pedro was on Marx Beltrão’s team of advisors.

When contacted, Marx Beltrão and João Pedro did not respond.

The PF tracked suspicious money transfers and withdrawals from Edmundo and Roberta and also from people and companies linked to the two.

It was based on this work that the police reached, for example, suspects of operating values ​​for the group, Luciano Cavalcante himself and a policeman who kept R$ 4.4 million in a safe and in whose name there is a vehicle used by Cavalcante and also by Lira’s campaign, which denies irregularities.

João Pedro is listed as being investigated by the PF. Investigations indicate that he would have received suspicious deposits from his father in the total amount of R$941,000 between April 2020 and March 2022. He also carried out five withdrawals of R$49,000 each that would have the objective, according to the investigation, of defrauding the regulatory limits for tracking transactions.

The proximity between those investigated and Lira is public, and some meeting dates coincide with visits to the FNDE and release of funds.

On March 8, 2022, Catunda and his son João Pedro were at the MEC body in the late afternoon and, on the same day, they met with the mayor and other allies. The photo of the meeting shows that Luciano Cavalcante was part of the group.

Another son of Catunda, Maceió councilor João Victor Catunda (PP-AL), was at the meeting – he is also mentioned in the investigations. The councilor was taken by Lira to a meeting at the STF (Federal Supreme Court) the following day, March 9.

Two FNDE payments to beneficiary municipalities, and with contracts with Megalic, took place on the same days that Catunda, the company’s owner, was at the agency: on February 8, 2022, the city of Maravilha (AL) received a deposit of BRL 2.1 million and Barra de Santo Antonio, R$ 2.4 million.

These transfers were the result of commitments (first stage of budget execution) carried out in the previous year, all through amendments by the rapporteur. On December 16, 2021, the FNDE committed BRL 19 million to four cities (Canapi, União dos Palmares, Santana do Mundaú and Flexeiras). Catunda was at the FNDE at 11:27 am that day.

In a note, the FNDE under the management of the Lula government (PT) said it is available for clarification. “In 2023, there is no record of access to the building by the people mentioned in the questions sent”, says the text.

* In the image below, Lira and her advisor Luciano Cavalcante at an event in Alagoas