PF finds payment notes for ‘Arthur’ and sends the robotics kit case to the STF – 06/25/2023 – Politics

The Federal Police sent the investigation into alleged deviations in robotics kit contracts to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) after finding documents with references to Arthur Lira (PP-AL) and a list of payments linked to the name “Arthur”.

The document was seized from Luciano Cavalcante, direct assistant to the mayor, and lists BRL 834,000 in amounts paid from December 2022 to March 2023.

Of this total, at least R$ 650,000 has the name “Arthur” at the front of the value. The document shows the date, amount, recipient of the expense and name to whom the expense is linked. There are at least 30 payments with reference to the name.

The investigation into deviations in robotics kit contracts originates from a report by Sheet published in April 2022. Another list with payments to the name “Arthur” was also found by the PF —this one revealed by piauí magazine and confirmed by Sheet.

In the document seized from Cavalcante, they appear as a justification for transfers from expenses with hotels used by Lira, passing through expenses with food at the RO, as the official residence is called, taxes, fuel, expenses with cars and even physiotherapy for the father of the mayor .

Luciano was assigned to the leadership of the PP of the Chamber and was exonerated after being targeted earlier this month in a search and seizure in Operation Hefesto, which targets deviations in robotic kit contracts.

He is known in Brasilia as Lira’s right-hand man. Luciano’s daughter is Lira’s son’s partner in a media advertising intermediation company and both worked in millionaire federal government contracts.

Lawyer André Callegari, who defends Cavalcante, says that he did not “have full access to the investigation records and steps already taken, which prevents any manifestation, since the motivation for the operation that was launched is not known”.

In the list of payments found by the PF, in addition to the name “Arthur”, there are elements that indicate the relationship of values ​​with the president of the Chamber. One of them is Bill’s physiotherapy payment, as the politician’s father is known.

Also on the list is a payment of R$ 4,500 linked to “Arthur” for “Hilux overhaul”. As shown to Sheetthe Lira campaign used in the 2022 campaign a Hilux pickup used to deliver money in Maceió under investigation by the PF.

The truck is in the name of Murilo Nogueira Júnior, also the target of the investigation, but it is at Luciano’s residence in the capital of Alagoas.

There are also expenses incurred by the deputy. Last year, when Lira ran for election to renew her federal deputy mandate, Cavalcante lent a car he owned — a VW Amarok, black, year 2020 — to be used in the mayor’s campaign.

In the notes obtained by the investigators, there is a description of expenses for the revision of an Amarok in February of this year. There is also a record of the purchase of tires for a Saveiro vehicle —Lira declared that she had a Saveiro in her property payments to the Electoral Justice in the last elections.

The PF also found notes of amounts related to the name “Arthur” with Luciano’s driver, Wanderson de Oliveira. The case revealed by piauí magazine points to 11 payments of around BRL 265,000 between April and May 2023.

In testimony to the PF, says the magazine, the driver stated that the payments were made at the request of Luciano, who would also be the owner of the Corolla vehicle used by him and where the notes were found.

Transactions refer to deputy salary, says Lira’s advisory

Sought, Lira replied through the press office that the transactions refer to the remuneration received by him as a parliamentarian or to gains in rural activity.

“All financial transactions and payments of expenses made by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, whether carried out by him and, sometimes, by his advisory, originate from his earnings as a farmer and his remuneration as a federal deputy”, says a note sent by the Lira’s press office.

A Sheet found that the PF of Alagoas has already sent the material to the STF after finding the citations to Lira with Luciano and his driver and now it will be up to Minister Luis Roberto Barroso to define the direction of the investigation. The Attorney General’s Office had already requested that the case be sent to higher courts.

The existence of citations to Lira in the apprehensions has been circulating in Brasilia since the searches that Luciano and his driver were targeted at Hefesto, which targets suspected deviations in robotics kit contracts, indicating that at some point the case would go up to the STF.

The government had earmarked R$ 26 million for seven cities in Alagoas to buy robotic kits despite suffering from serious infrastructure deficiencies. All cities had contracts with the same company, Megalic, owned by Edmundo Catunda and Roberta Lins.

Federal resources, released and transferred at unusual speed, were the so-called rapporteur’s amendments, a billionaire part of the Union budget controlled by Lira.

The investigation mapped transfers from the company that won the bids in Alagoas funded with money from the FNDE (National Fund for the Development of Education) to firms in Brasília identified by the PF as a front.

By monitoring the couple that owned the companies, the PF filmed cash withdrawals followed by the delivery of values ​​in Brasília (DF), Goiânia (GO), Luziânia (GO), Florianópolis (SC) and Maceió (AL). In one of them, on May 17 of this year, the police filmed a cash delivery at a hotel in Brasília used by Luciano Cavalcante.

The sequence of images obtained by the investigators shows from Luciano’s departure from the hotel, the return of his driver with the Corolla used by him, the arrival of the couple and the delivery of valuables inside the garage.

Earlier, in January, investigators arrived in Luciano after the couple appointed as money deliverers went to the capital of Alagoas. In Maceió, they were at Luciano’s house and used a pickup truck in the name of a policeman, but kept at the residence of Lira’s assistant.

As shown to Sheetthe Hilux pickup is in the name of Murilo Nogueira Júnior, a target of the PF and with whom about R$ 4 million was found, and was loaned to the 2022 campaign in which Lira was a candidate.

The PF has already identified that Cavalcante was part of a WhatsApp group called “Robótica Gestão” which included the partners of Megalic The police investigation also discovered that Edmundo Catunda transferred R$ 550 thousand to the company that built the house where Cavalcante lives.