PF target minister breaks with uncle and wants to elect advisor – 12/17/2023 – Power

The Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho (União Brasil-MA), broke with part of the family and is preparing the candidacy of Ademar Magalhães, his former parliamentary advisor, for mayor of Vitorino Freire (MA).

The city is commanded by Luanna Rezende (União Brasil), sister of the minister, who is in her second term and can no longer be re-elected. The support of Juscelino’s group was also disputed by Stenio Rezende (União Brasil), one of his and the mayor’s uncles, who is now publicly criticizing his nephews.

Known as Fogoió, Magalhães is the father of lawyer Anne Jakelyne Magalhães. Until 2018, she was a partner at Arco Construções, a company that the Federal Police say belongs to Juscelino and was used to divert resources from parliamentary amendments. He denies it.

Magalhães and his wife, Suedemir de Jesus, in addition to Anne Jakelyne, worked in Juscelino’s office in the Chamber of Deputies.

The possible candidate for mayor of Vitorino Freire also had a position as a driver at the local city hall. Since June 2023, Magalhães has been the municipality’s Secretary of Infrastructure and Logistics.

In a statement, the Lula government’s Ministry of Communications said it “will not comment on issues affecting the 2024 elections.” The ministry did not respond to questions about the PF’s suspicions and said that Juscelino’s lawyers had already spoken out.

Passed over by Juscelino, his uncle and former state deputy Stenio Rezende is the brother of Juscelino Rezende, father of the Minister of Communications and Mayor Luanna.

Juscelino, the father, also commanded Vitorino Freire, a city that houses farms belonging to the minister’s family and a neighborhood named after the current mayor.

“In my 30 years of political experience, I have never been through a delicate situation like this. Although I have the support of 12 of my 13 brothers, I received — with surprise — the news about the decision, from my nephews (mayor Luana and the minister Juscelino Filho), to nominate his employee Fogoió as a candidate for municipal succession in Vitorino Freire”, said Stenio, in a note.

He said he was unable to “understand” the choice, “especially due to the dictatorial way the nomination was decided.”

The PF found dialogues between Juscelino and businessman Eduardo DP, a hidden partner in the construction company Construservice, about the execution of works, allocation of amendments and payments to people and companies.

For investigators, Juscelino participated in the diversion of resources for works paid for with his own amendments and carried out by Construservice under agreements with Codevasf (Companhia de Desenvolvimento dos Vales do São Francisco e do Parnaíba). Arco, which the PF suspects belongs to the minister, would have been used in the alleged embezzlement.

Juscelino and Luanna were targets of the third phase of the PF’s Odoacro operation. She was removed from city hall by decision of Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), but returned to her position days later.

Barroso, however, denied the PF’s request for search and seizure against the minister. The judge stated that there was a risk of “institutional impact of the measure”, whose damage could be “irreversible”.

In notes sent previously, the minister’s defense did not respond about the relationship between Juscelino Filho and Eduardo DP and called the material obtained by the PF “supposed messages”.

“This is yet another attack in the attempt to criminalize parliamentary amendments, a legitimate and democratic instrument of the National Congress, while there is absolutely nothing that discredits Juscelino Filho’s performance in the Ministry of Communications”, states the note signed by lawyers Ticiano Figueiredo and Pedro Ivo Velloso.

Wanted, Anne and Fogoió hung up the phone when the news report Sheet identified. Arco’s lawyer, Gustavo Belfort, did the same. They did not respond to questions sent via messages.

Records available on the Maranhão Court of Auditors website only show Arco contracts in the city of Vitorino Freire. The company’s owner was Lia Parente Santana, another former advisor to Juscelino, who is also the wife of Antonio Tito Salem Soares, current owner of the construction company.

Cell phone messages obtained by the PF show that, on March 26, 2019, Juscelino Filho sent Eduardo DP, a hidden partner at Construservice, Antonio Tito’s contact information. Subsequently, the then deputy sent three messages to the DP citing payments and amounts.

Investigators also found records of payments from a name linked to Construservice to Arco. “That is, Juscelino Filho uses the money from parliamentary amendments to hire a company that actually belongs to him to carry out the works”, says the PF.

Arco even carried out work, with funds indicated by Juscelino, to restore the dirt road that gives access to the minister’s farm. One year after the end of the service, the head of the Communications department directed another amendment to the Construservice contract to pave several roads in the municipality, including the same road that leads to the Rezende family’s rural property.