PF asks for search against Lula’s minister, but Barroso denies it – 09/01/2023 – Politics

This Friday morning (1) the Federal Police carried out search and seizure warrants in an investigation aimed at the Minister of Communications in the Lula government, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil-MA).

The PF even asked for searches against Juscelino, but Luís Roberto Barroso, from the STF, denied the request.

One of the search targets is Luanna Resende, sister of Juscelino, and mayor of Vitorino Freire, in Maranhão. She was also removed from office by decision of Barroso.

The investigation targets works by the construction company Construservice contracted by Codevasf (Development Company of the São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys) and countertops with money from parliamentary amendments, some of them sent by Juscelino Filho.

The operation was named Benesse and, according to the PF, aims to dismantle a criminal organization structured to “promote bidding fraud, embezzlement of public resources and money laundering, involving federal funds” from Codevasf.

12 search and seizure warrants are served in the municipalities of São Luís, Vitorino Freire and Bacabal, all in Maranhão. The investigation, which started in 2021, had its first phase triggered in July 2022 and the second in October last year.

The current phase, according to the PF, “reaches the public nucleus of the criminal organization, after tracking the indication and deviation of parliamentary amendments intended for the asphalt paving of a municipality in Maranhão.”

If the suspicions are confirmed, follows the note from the Federal Police, “those investigated may respond for bid fraud, money laundering, criminal organization, embezzlement, active corruption and passive corruption”.

One of the main targets of the investigation is businessman Eduardo José Barros Costa, a hidden partner at Construservice. He was arrested in the early stages of the investigation.

The information collected in the first phases points out that the police believe that Costa had easy access to the top of the state-owned company. He also suspects that the company’s bids may just be a means of formalizing the allocation of funds to the contractor.

That’s because, according to the investigators, shell companies and those linked to Costa competed for some of the works delivered to Construservice. PF agents raised evidence that Costa’s group operated with six shell companies and six hustlers.