Lula’s minister would have presented false data to justify campaign spending

The Minister of Communications in the Lula government (PT), José Juscelino Filho (União Brasil), allegedly presented false data to the Electoral Justice to justify spending R$ 385,000 from the Electoral Fund to hire an air taxi company in São Paulo during the 2022 campaign. The information was revealed by the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo this Tuesday (31).

According to the publication, the minister’s defense declared, in documents forwarded for accountability, that three electoral cables made, last year, 23 helicopter trips through Maranhão, the minister’s electoral stronghold, re-elected federal deputy in the last elections. However, the three names presented in the rendering of accounts are of a couple and a 10-year-old child, residents of São Paulo.

The family denies knowing the politician and says they have not made any kind of trip to the Northeast during the period indicated in the document presented by the minister. “That’s wrong, it’s probably a fraud. I have no connection with a campaign or a politician in Maranhão. They used my name, my family’s, my daughter’s,” says the businessman quoted by the politician’s defense.

According to the businessman, who works in the decoration business, five months ago the family used the same air taxi company mentioned in the minister’s rendering of accounts to make a trip between the cities of São Paulo and Campos do Jordão and that, probably, the minister would have used the same passenger list to carry out proof of expenses.

strikethrough names

Also according to the newspaper, the list sent by the politician to the Electoral Justice was presented outside the standard, with handwritten notes and drafts, some of them erased. Questioned by the Electoral Justice about the connection of the passengers with the electoral committee, Juscelino’s defense reaffirmed that the aforementioned family provided services for the campaign.

“It should be noted that all flights were made in favor of the candidate’s electoral campaign, as well as all the people listed in the reports provided services directly to the campaign”, justifies the document presented in the minister’s accountability.

Sought by the newspaper to explain the contradictions in the list, Minister Juscelino Filho did not appear. The air taxi company, on the other hand, stated that an error in the system caused the problem and that is why the name of the family from São Paulo appeared in the reports sent by the minister to the Electoral Justice.

MP says there was no proof of link

Juscelino Filho’s rendering of accounts was approved with reservations in December by the Regional Electoral Court of Maranhão. The Electoral Public Ministry appealed against the final decision, claiming that there was no proof of a link between the passengers and the minister’s electoral campaign. The defense alleges that there is no further appeal from the MP and insists that there are no errors in the rendering of accounts.

In the same action, the Electoral MP also requests the payment to the National Treasury of the amount of R$ 185 thousand, related to expenses incurred after the date of the election and the amount of R$ 385 thousand, related to the irregularity in the application of the Special Campaign Financing.

Recently, the same newspaper revealed that Juscelino also used funds from parliamentary amendments to pave a road that passes through his and family farms in the city of Vitorino Freire, in Maranhão. The 19-kilometer work consumed BRL 5 million in funds from the 2020 “secret budget”.