PF finds out if companies paid Lira advisor’s property – 06/08/2023 – Power

A Federal police suspects that two companies belonging to the couple identified as delivering money allegedly embezzled from contracts for the purchase of robotics kits paid for the purchase of an apartment for Luciano Cavalcante, assistant to the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

Luciano was the target of Operation Hephaestus on June 1st and ended up being dismissed from the PP leadership in the Chamber the following day. The investigation began after a report by the Sheet April 2022 reveal evidence of irregularities in contracts for robotics kit funded by FNDE (National Fund for Education Development).

According to information in the possession of the PF, the companies PJX Administração and Exclusiva Tecnologia transferred at least R$ 150 thousand to the company Promenade Ponta Verde II Empreendimentos. The transfers were carried out between June 1, 2022 and May 23, 2023.

The two companies are in the name of Pedro Magno, caught, alongside his wife, Juliana, in withdrawals and subsequent deliveries of money allegedly embezzled from public contracts.

The investigators went after information about Promenade and discovered that it was responsible for the construction of a building in Alagoas with two-bedroom apartments, with a size of 52 m² and a price starting at R$ 318,234.

“It is believed that the aforementioned transfers to the company Promenade Ponta Verde II Empreendimentos, carried out through the accounts of a fictitious company owned by the couple from Brasília, were intended for the acquisition or payment in installments of units in the Edifício Promenade II Ponta Verde project, in benefit of Luciano Cavalcante”, says the PF when requesting searches against the companies.

As shown to Sheet, another property used by Luciano was already in the sights of investigators.

By following the path of money from Megalic and its partner, Edmundo Catunda, the company responsible for selling robotics kits to cities in Alagoas, the PF mapped out a transfer of R$ 550,000 to the construction company EMG, from Alagoas.

The construction company appears to be responsible for building the house that investigators point to as belonging to Luciano Cavalcante. She received the payments between April and October 2020, when competitions for hiring robotics kits were held.

The PF investigates the relationship between deviations of public money and transfers from Megalic’s partner to EMG.

The police discovered Luciano’s house, in the Laguna condominium, when they followed the money-delivery couple during a trip to Maceió.

Investigators mapped more than a dozen deliveries made by Pedro and Juliana and intense financial transactions in their companies.

The companies, including the two mentioned by the PF in the case of Luciano’s apartment, would be used as “true ATMs, carrying out various financial operations between their own accounts, those of their companies or owned by other individuals and legal entities, in addition to the withdrawals themselves and personal delivery of valuables in kind”.

For the police, the amounts in kind withdrawn are “possibly intended for public agents or intermediary businessmen”.

“Such movements demonstrate serious indications that Pedro and Juliana (through intense financial movement in their companies) would possibly be operators of a considerable and broad money laundering scheme in several states of the Federation, hiding and disguising assets, rights and values ​​arising from practices crimes committed by various criminal groups, with or without connection to each other”, says the PF.

One of these deliveries monitored by the PF was for the driver of Lira’s own advisor.

According to the PF, the couple personally delivered values ​​at least in the cities of Brasília, Luziânia (GO), Goiânia, Florianópolis and Maceió.

Lawyer André Callegari, who defends Luciano Cavalcante, said in a note that he did not have full access to the investigation records and steps already taken. According to him, this “prevents any manifestation”, since “the motivation for the operation started is not known”.

“Thus, any defensive manifestation at this moment is premature.”

A Sheet was unable to contact the couple’s defense.

In a note signed by lawyer Eugênio Aragão, Megalic’s defense stated that there was a “serious mistake” in the suspicions and that all contracts were based on technical parameters from the Ministry of Education and the FNDE, with a bidding process and broad competition.

The note says that the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da União) did not see any direction or incompatible prices and that the report by the Sheet that gave rise to the investigation improperly compared Megalic’s products with kits of inferior quality.

Lira has denied any relationship with alleged embezzlement of public funds.