Facade of the headquarters of the Federal Police, in Brasilia.| Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil.

The Federal Police (PF) launched, this Thursday morning (1st), Operation Hefesto to dismantle a criminal organization suspected of committing crimes of fraud in bidding and money laundering in Alagoas.

About 110 police officers and 13 civil servants from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) carry out 27 search and seizure warrants, 16 of which in Maceió, eight in Brasília, one in Gravatá (PE), one in São Carlos (SP) and one in Goiânia, in addition to two temporary arrest warrants in Brasília – all issued by the 2nd Federal Court of the Judiciary Section of Alagoas, informed Agência Brasil.

According to the PF, the crimes would have occurred between 2019 and 2022, during bidding processes, adherence to price registration minutes and contractual celebrations related to the supply of robotics equipment to 43 municipalities in Alagoas. The resources would come from the National Education Development Fund (FNDE). “The aforementioned contracts would have been illicitly directed to a single supplier of robotics equipment”, said the corporation in a note.

It was also determined the seizure of movable and immovable property of the investigated, in the amount of R$ 8.1 million, and the suspension of bidding processes and administrative contracts signed between the investigated company and the municipalities of Alagoas that received resources from the FNDE for the acquisition of equipment of robotics.

Also according to the PF, fraud and overbilling generated losses of BRL 8.1 million to the treasury, in addition to overpricing, with potential damages of BRL 19.8 million. According to the corporation, the “name of the operation is a reference to the god of technology, fire, metals and metallurgy in Greek mythology, in allusion to the robotics equipment that is the object of public contracts celebrated by the municipalities of Alagoas”.