PF: Money delivery couple acted in other schemes – 06/12/2023 – Power

The Federal Police suspect that the couple filmed in deliveries of money allegedly embezzled from robotics kit contracts had a broader role, not only in the scheme exposed from a report by the Sheet.

The couple Pedro Magno and Juliana Cristina were the targets of arrest warrants in Operation Hefesto, launched on June 1, but were released a day later.

They have been monitored since 2022 by investigators during cash withdrawals and subsequent deliveries of these amounts in Brasília, Luziânia (GO), Goiânia, Florianópolis and Maceió.

As shown to Sheetit was the couple who led the investigators to Luciano Cavalcante, the main assistant to the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), dismissed after the operation.

The PF discovered in the name of Pedro and Juliana a network of companies identified as front that received high amounts from firms with public contracts, including Megalic and its partner, Edmundo Catunda.

Megalic was the winner of a series of bids funded with federal money for the purchase of a robotic kit for municipalities in Alagoas. Catunda is Lira’s ally and transferred values ​​to a construction company that built Luciano Cavalcante’s house.

In the arrest request, the PF states that the financial movements of the companies on behalf of the couple “demonstrate serious indications” that they “would possibly be operators of a considerable and wide-ranging money laundering scheme in several states of the Federation, hiding and disguising assets, rights and values ​​arising from criminal practices committed by various criminal groups, with or without connection to each other”.

Still according to the PF, in order not to unduly expand the investigation, at first, only the information from the couple’s companies related to Megalic and the robotics kit contracts were analyzed.

“After due investigative progress with the measures claimed here, as well as identification and individualization of conduct, specific Crime News will be prepared and sent to the Federal Police units responsible for investigations in their districts, with possible sharing of information”, says an excerpt from the representation of the PF.

The couple is seen as the focal point of the investigation into alleged deviations from robotics kit contracts.

Since 2022, the PF has monitored dozens of withdrawals and cash deliveries carried out by them.

The suspect is that the amounts are intended for public agents and that the couple is specialized in “crimes of money laundering, hiding and disguising assets, rights and values ​​​​from the diversion of public resources of the most varied nature and from various public entities “.

One of the monitored deliveries, on May 17, 2023, went to Wanderson Ribeiro, Luciano Cavalcante’s driver, at a hotel in Brasília.

“After the arrival of Wanderson Ribeiro, it is possible to verify in the images that Pedro Magno takes a small backpack in the back seat and, in the company of Luciano Cavalcante’s driver, they go to the interior of the black Corolla vehicle that was in Wanderson’s possession”, says the PF.

The police officers who monitored the delivery managed to notice that Pedro and Wanderson arrived at the vehicle and stayed inside it for about a minute.

During this period, according to the corporation’s report, “it is possible to state that Pedro Magno leaves packages of money in the glove compartment of the Corolla vehicle” and then returns to the other car where his wife is with the “apparently empty purse”.

In a note, the Bosco, Sales e Antunes office, responsible for the couple’s defense, stated that they “have no involvement with the alleged frauds in the bidding process pointed out in the investigations and are available to the criminal prosecution bodies to collaborate with the investigations” .

According to the defenders, they already gave testimony to the PF on the day of the Hefesto operation and the investigation information is confidential.

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.”

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.