Lira’s advisor was part of a group on robotics kit – 06/07/2023 – Politics

Investigations by the Federal Police into the alleged misappropriation of public resources for education show that former parliamentary advisor Luciano Cavalcante participated in a WhatsApp group called “Robótica Gestão”, which included, among other people, the partner of the company identified as the linchpin of the scheme—the Megalic.

Closest advisor to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), Luciano had his resignation from the PP leadership published on Monday (5).

Last week, the PF carried out arrest and search and seizure warrants against Lira’s allies in an investigation into deviations in contracts for the purchase of robotics kits with money from the FNDE (National Fund for the Development of Education). The funds arrived at the body through the so-called rapporteur amendments, controlled at the time by the president of the Chamber.

The case originated from a report by the Sheet published in April last year on acquisitions in municipalities in Alagoas, all signed with Megalic, a company belonging to Lira’s allies.

Both the mayor and the company deny any relationship with wrongdoing.

According to the PF inquiry, data provided by WhatsApp showed that the “Robótica Gestão” group was made up of Luciano Cavalcante, Roberta Lins Costa Melo, a partner at Megalic, and four other people.

The PF claims that Luciano kept in contact with some of those investigated on suspicion of making constant deliveries of cash and that, on at least one occasion, he was the recipient of an amount withdrawn moments earlier at bank branches.

On May 17 of this year, for example, the couple Pedro Magno Salomão Dias and Juliana Cristina Batista, suspected of promoting the delivery of cash, were monitored by a PF team withdrawing money from an agency in Brasília and, later, going to the garage at Complexo Brasil 21, in the central region of the federal capital.

On that occasion, the PF photographed and obtained images showing the alleged delivery of the money withdrawn to Wanderson Ribeiro Josino de Jesus, Luciano’s driver, inside a black Corolla.

“From the images, it is possible to perceive that the investigated remain inside the vehicle (…) for less than 1 minute. black Corolla vehicle gloves.”

Still according to the PF report, moments later the driver goes up to the apartment where the parliamentary advisor was.

The police say that the information provided by WhatsApp shows that on the same day there was “intense exchange of messages” between Pedro Magno and Luciano Cavalcante.

“In the same sense, the analysis of WhatsApp telematics data identified that Luciano Cavalcante and Pedro Magno exchanged 83 messages in the short period between 05/09/2023 and 05/21/2023”, says the PF, which also found 51 audio links between them.

The PF points out that the couple Pedro and Juliana own several companies, some of them without physical headquarters or effective operation, even carrying out various financial transactions between these companies.

The couple’s companies received significant transfers from Megalic and its partner, Edmundo Catunda.

The PF investigation also shows that the couple frequently withdraw cash, always divided into lots of less than R$50,000, and at various bank branches, all of this followed by personal deliveries of values ​​”to probable public agents and/or people who appear as contractors in public contracts”.

Deliveries, according to the PF, took place at least in the cities of Brasília (DF), Luziânia (GO), Goiânia (GO), Florianópolis (SC) and Maceió (AL)”.

“The hypothesis raised here is that the couple Pedro and Juliana are specialized in the practice of crimes of money laundering, hiding and disguising assets, rights and values ​​arising from the diversion of public resources of the most varied nature and originating from various public entities, enabling the return of capital to the perpetrators of previous crimes, with some semblance of legality”, says the PF report.

Lawyer André Callegari, who defends Luciano Cavalcante, says that the images “do not indicate any illicit act committed by those being investigated, much less by Luciano, who does not even appear in them.”

According to him, the facts will be “duly clarified in the course of investigations.”

Callegari also defends Wanderson and said about the driver’s case that so far he “has only images against him without any proof of an illicit fact practiced”.

In a note signed by lawyer Eugênio Aragão, Megalic’s defense stated that there was a “serious mistake” in the suspicions and that all contracts were based on technical parameters of the Ministry of Education and the National Fund for the Development of Education, with a bidding process and wide competitiveness.

The note says that the Federal Court of Auditors did not see any direction or incompatible prices and that the report by the Sheet that gave rise to the investigation improperly compared Megalic’s products with kits of inferior quality.