PF asks Michelle Bolsonaro to break bank and tax secrecy

Investigation

On Friday (11), the Federal Police made the same request for breach of confidentiality as former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL)

The Federal Police (PF) asked for the breach of banking and tax secrecy of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, according to authorities linked to the investigation. On Friday (11), the PF made the same request to break secrecy as former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The assessment is that there are already situations — not yet revealed — that more strongly involve the former president in the jewelry case.

Sources also informed that there was no rush to hear those investigated and that there is already a lot of evidence against them. Sought through her advisory, the former first lady did not appear until the publication of this report.

Federal Police Operation

On Friday (11), an operation was launched that involved Bolsonaro’s advisors, including Mauro Cid, a former aide-de-camp, and his father.

In addition to them, Bolsonaro’s former lawyer Frederick Wassef was also targeted. He would have bought back a watch sold by Cid illegally, according to the PF.

According to the PF, the suspects are investigated for using the structure of the Brazilian State to divert goods of high patrimonial value, given as a gift by foreign authorities on official missions to representatives of the Brazilian State, through the sale of these items in countries abroad.

The investigation has so far pointed out that the amounts obtained from these illegal sales have been converted into cash and entered into the personal assets of those investigated.

The PF is investigating whether Mauro Cid would have sold and then repurchased a Rolex watch valued at US$68,000 (more than R$300,000 at the current exchange rate).

He would have sold the first items on June 13, 2022. According to the operation, he took gifts received by the Brazilian State to the United States with the intention of selling them.

Cid would have transported the objects on the same presidential plane in which Jair Bolsonaro traveled to Orlando, on December 30 last year, on the eve of the end of his term.

The former aide-de-camp even said, in an audio obtained during the PF investigation, that his father, Mauro Lourena Cid, would be in possession of US$ 25,000, the equivalent of just over R$ 122,000.

The money allegedly belonged to the former president and should be delivered in cash to avoid movements in bank accounts.

After the start of the scandal at the beginning of the year, the Rolex would have been recovered, on March 14, 2023, by the lawyer Frederick Wassef, who returned with the good to Brazil, on March 29, 2023, and handed it back to Mauro Cid.

Now, the PF must also determine where the money for the repurchase of the jewels came from.

Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro will be called to testify at the inquiry. Some of the jewelry involved in the case would have been given to her as a gift.

The PF had access to a dialogue, by audio, between Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former assistant, and Marcelo Câmara, special advisor to the former president, indicating that a gift would have “disappeared with Mrs. [Bolsonaro, ex-primeira-dama]”.

PF suspects Bolsonaro determined scheme to sell official gifts

The PF report that supported the operation pointed out that Jair Bolsonaro “determined” that the jewelry from the Presidency of the Republic received from Arab authorities be directed to his private collection.

In addition, the investigation indicates that the material should be sold and the money transferred “in cash” to the former president.

At the end of Friday night, the PF asked the STF to break the ex-president’s fiscal and banking secrecy, informed authorities linked to the investigation.

The assessment is that there are already situations — not yet revealed — that more strongly involve the former president in the case. Sources also reported that there was no rush to hear those investigated and that there would already be a lot of evidence against them.

In a note, Bolsonaro’s lawyers stated that the former president “never appropriated or embezzled any public property”.

*With information from CNN Brazil

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