PF and Abin took joint action in the spy software case – 01/28/2024 – Power

Despite being in conflict behind the scenes, the Federal Police and Abin (Brazilian Intelligence Agency) took joint action during investigations into the use of spy software by the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

On May 10, 2023, members of the two corporations met with the company Cognyte, manufacturer of the Israeli software FirstMile, and formalized in minutes procedures for the recovery and transfer of data from the use of the tool by Abin.

According to data compiled from the investigative inquiry commission established by Abin, and obtained by Sheetthe meeting resulted in the company handing over flash drives with the recovered data to the PF and the intelligence agency.

In a statement to Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), the PF accuses Abin’s current management of hindering investigations and promoting internal “collusion” with the aim of freeing employees from punishment.

Most importantly, the PF cites a meeting of the Abin leadership already under Lula with civil servants in which the agency’s number 2, Alessandro Moretti, said that the case had a political basis and would pass.

The agency denies this and says it has cooperated with police investigations from the outset. Members of the PF say behind the scenes that they believe that the evidence raised in the operation launched on Thursday (25) shows the need for a change in Abin’s command. The two institutions have been at odds with each other since the beginning of the Lula (PT) government.

FirstMile is the software acquired by Abin at the end of the Michel Temer administration (2016-2018) and which began to be used during the Bolsonaro government, having been in operation from 2019 to 2021.

He is currently the target of an investigation by the Federal Police on suspicion of having been used by the Bolsonaro administration to illegally spy on political opponents. The software provides the approximate location of people through signals sent by devices to cell phone antennas. According to people with knowledge of the tool, it does not access call or message exchange content.

Although the agency has a record of part of the telephone numbers monitored during the Bolsonaro administration, the great precariousness of control over the tool led PF and Abin to seek data recovery within the company itself.

Two operations requested by the PF and authorized by Moraes have already been carried out, last October and last Thursday.

In the midst of the latter, the general director of Abin, Luiz Fernando Corrêa, called a board meeting, which was seen by the PF as an attempt to hinder the investigation since, among other things, a search and seizure warrant was being executed including at the agency’s headquarters in Brasília.

After the newspaper O Globo revealed the suspected illegal use of the software, in March 2023, the PF opened an investigation and Abin also established an investigative inquiry commission.

The investigation had the formal objective of deepening the internal investigations carried out by the agency during the Bolsonaro administration, but it had only concluded that there were no clear rules for using the tool, in addition to there being no effective mechanisms for recording its use.

During the investigation opened by Abin’s current management, 69 employees and former employees were heard, in a total of 79 statements taken.

Abin also sent information to the PF through 11 letters, in addition to another 3 sent to the STF.

The agency says it never failed to provide information, nor was there any delay. And it also states that the PF never formalized any type of complaint of lack of response or attempted obstruction.

When contacted, the PF said it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

Chronology of Abin’s investigation into the spy software case

Background

• Still during the Bolsonaro administration, Abin introduced an extraordinary correction on the FirstMile tool
• In its conclusion, the correction pointed out that there was a lack of superior guidance on how to use the tool and that there was even sharing of passwords. It also concluded that Doint (Intelligence Operations Department) did not maintain a data repository.

New investigation

• On March 14, 2023, already during the Lula government, the newspaper O Globo revealed that Jair Bolsonaro’s Abin used the program to monitor people’s locations via cell phones.
• The following day, Minister Flávio Dino (Justice) ordered the Federal Police to open an investigation to investigate the case.
• On March 21, Abin’s management established an investigative inquiry committee to delve deeper into the findings of the extraordinary correction.

Developments

• On March 22, the Abin commission requested from Doint the operations in which FirstMile was used, the targets and the list of servers that used it.
• That same day, the PF asked Abin to provide copies of the correction, the tool purchase procedure and the list of servers with access to it. Abin sent the information two days later.
• Also on March 24, the Abin investigation committee asked the software manufacturer (Cognyte) for a list of access logs and the telephone numbers consulted. The company sent the data on April 10.
• On March 30, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, from the STF, ordered Abin to deliver the list of people monitored through FirstMile.
• On the same day, Abin’s investigation committee asked Moraes to have access to telephone operator registration data relating to monitored phones. Moraes would deny this request in May.
• On April 11, Abin sent Moraes and the PF a pendrive with a spreadsheet containing the number of monitored phones, associated with the cases that would have motivated the monitoring.
• On April 12, the Abin commission asked the research department for emails exchanged with Cognyte. The following month, he asked the same organization to search for files that could be related to the use of the tool.
• On April 19, Abin received a request from the PF for a copy of the investigative report.
• On May 10, there was a meeting between Cognyte, members of Abin and the Federal Police with the purpose of recovering records from the system and arranging the transfer of the database related to FirstMile. That same day, a formal commitment to deliver the data was signed.
• On May 12, the PF requested data sent to Abin by Cognyte. The demand was met on the same day.
• Three days later, Abin sent copies of data and procedure documents for restoring the FirstMile database to the PF.
• On June 5, Abin sent the PF the list of justifications for monitoring phones, as well as notebooks for forensic examination, updating investigations and administrative processes, in addition to copies of statements from civil servants given during the investigation.

Conclusion