Messages indicate 12% bribes in works in Acre – 03/17/2023 – Power

Messages in possession of the Federal Police point out that an alleged corruption scheme in the Government of Acre even charged bribes from companies of 12% of the value of works won with the public power.

The material appears in the documentation that supported the 3rd phase of Operation Ptolemy, launched on the last 9th and which targeted Governor Gladson Cameli (PP). He had against him an order for delivery of the passport and seizure of assets issued by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice).

As shown to SheetCameli is suspected of participating in the scheme to divert public resources and launder part of the amounts with luxury cars, real estate, planes and millionaire expenses on the credit card.

The governor’s defense stated that he “did not commit any illegality and the investigation will serve to prove his innocence, making it clear that his management has always been guided by ethics and efficiency”.

“Since the beginning of the investigation, the governor has already provided the necessary clarifications, made himself available to the authorities and remains so”, says the note signed by lawyers Ticiano Figueiredo, Pedro Ivo Velloso, Tarcísio Vieira de Carvalho Neto and Telson Ferreira.

In conversations, in text and audio, employees of companies with government contracts openly talk about paying counterparts to be hired.

In a sequence of messages at the beginning of 2021, for example, an interlocutor named Diego, according to the PF, a member of the staff of a company, talks about the request for payment of bribes by an advisor from Cameli to win the construction contract of a building for the State Department of the Environment.

“But that’s it, I’m just going to ask you two things, for this partnership of ours to work out and not be like the other two that I don’t like, accept this 12% in payment — you go there and deposit it. And another thing is no comment with anyone”, says an excerpt from an audio in which Diego reports the request of the governor’s advisor.

Then, another interlocutor replies that “if it’s 12%, but we’re getting full price, there’s nothing to think about”.

The interlocutor even makes a prediction, after being questioned about the high amount of the bribe. “Diego, I’m not fooling myself, no. They asked for 12% now, from now on, in these works given directly, it’s the minimum, you can be sure. You can wait, in a few days it’s 15%.”

The same Diego, according to the messages, returns to talk about the amount of the bribe, mentions that the amount is high and says he doubts that the money would be totally destined to defray campaign expenses.

According to the PF, the conversation points to the receipt of bribes by the governor and indicates that there may have been abuse of political and economic power in the 2022 election, when Cameli was re-elected governor.

Another dialogue that caught the attention of the investigators was one in which Diego talks about a way to transport the amounts that would be used to pay bribes. In that conversation, he says that “he wanted a backpack, a briefcase, something, to deliver that money”.

The bribe payments also appear in spreadsheets seized by the investigators. In one of them, the payment is classified as “administrative expenses”.

For the investigators, it is clear in the conversations that the values ​​have the governor as a beneficiary.

“The repeated references to Gladson Cameli’s ascendant position regarding the companies that would be ‘chosen’ to receive works and which would have their contracts paid with priority indicate, with little room for doubt, that Gladson would be one of the beneficiaries of the bribe paid by the entrepreneurs “, says an excerpt from one of the reports in possession of the STJ.

One of the clues gathered by the investigators is the testimony of a service provider hired to design and install a private cinema in the governor’s house — the property was one of the targets of blockade by Justice.

He told the PF that he had received R$50,000 in cash in a perfumery bag as part of the payment. Asked who did it, he narrated the person’s physical characteristics.

Days later, he was called again by the PF and, through photos, recognized that the person responsible for delivering the amounts was the same Cameli advisor mentioned in the conversations about collecting bribes.

Another factor that led the PF to distrust the governor was the growth of his assets. Cameli’s tax secrets, from 2018 to 2021, were analyzed and show an exponential increase, in addition to the existence of a considerable difference between what was declared and hidden assets.

After being elected governor in 2018, the assets, according to the investigation, grew almost five times in relation to that declared when starting the mandate.

The officially declared value that year was BRL 2.8 million, and the data show that, in 2021, the real estate was BRL 16 million, a growth of more than 470%.

In the 1st phase of the operation, in December 2021, the governor was subject to a search and seizure and the STJ ordered the removal of the coordinator of his office, the Secretary of Industry, Science and Technology and two other public servants.

At the time, according to the police, the investigation was aimed at a corruption scheme integrated by public agents in collusion with businessmen who set up the government structure to divert public money.

In the same month of 2021, the PF carried out the second phase of Ptolemy and arrested Rosângela Gama, then coordinator of the Cabinet of the Government of Acre. The server, according to the investigation, tried to obstruct the ongoing investigation.