President of Petrobras returns statuette given by Saudi Arabian minister – 09/17/2023 – Market

In the wake of the jewelry scandal given by Saudi authorities to the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), yet another boss linked to the current administration decided to return a gift received from the country.

The president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, appointed by the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), last month returned a statuette in the shape of an antelope given by the Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Khalid A. Al-Falih

Petrobras was unable to inform the estimated value, the material of the figurine and the reason for the return.

According to a document that shows the list of gifts received by members of the state-owned company, Prates won the statuette on August 3rd, and returned it via Itamaraty in a letter issued on August 18th and registered on August 23rd.

The piece was sent close to the visit of a Saudi delegation to Brazil, at the end of July. With more than 70 members representing the country’s main public and private companies, this was the largest delegation from Saudi Arabia that Brazil has ever received.

On the occasion, the vice-president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad (PT), also returned gifts sent by the same Saudi minister, Khalid A. Al- Falih.

Alckmin received a statue in the shape of a camel and Haddad was presented with a golden sculpture in the shape of a jaguar. Initially, the information disclosed was that the statue received by the Minister of Finance was made of gold. But the ministry was unable to verify the material.

The golden jaguar would be taken to Brasília and incorporated into the Union’s heritage, but the Federal Revenue ordered its return.

“As a protocol, the offering of gifts to public authorities must be made with prior notice to the ceremonial ceremony of the public body awarded”, explained the Treasury. “For this reason, the Secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas, instructed the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to return the statue of a jaguar, received from the government of Saudi Arabia, to the country’s embassy in Brasília, which will be promptly attended to “, stated the ministry in a note.

UNDERSTAND THE CASE OF BOLSONARO’S JEWELRY

At the beginning of this year, other valuable gifts given by Saudis to Brazilian authorities became the subject of a police investigation, when it was discovered that jewelry sent to former president Jair Bolsonaro and his wife, Michele, had not been declared to the IRS nor incorporated into the patrimony.

The case began in October 2021, when a delegation led by the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, returned from an official trip to Saudi Arabia. Military officer Marcos André dos Santos Soeiro tried to enter the country with the jewelry in his personal luggage, without declaring it to customs. He ended up stopped at Guarulhos airport, and the material was seized.

The Revenue claims to have advised the government on how to unload the material, which could be released without paying taxes if it were destined for public property, but that this never happened.

According to a report prepared by the National Criminalistics Institute of the Federal Police, the watch, ring and pair of white gold and diamond earrings and necklace presented by the Saudi Arabian government to the former president and former first lady have an estimated value of R$5 million.

Documents subsequent to the seizure show that the Ministry of Mines and Energy tried, between October and November 2021, to recover the jewels, claiming that they would be analyzed for incorporation “into the private collection of the President of the Republic or the public collection of the Presidency of the Republic”.

At the end of his term, Bolsonaro tried to remove the goods from Guarulhos airport, sending advisors to collect them. The IRS refused to deliver them.

The government’s supposed resistance to declaring jewelry as a public asset contradicts the understanding established by the TCU (Federal Audit Court) since 2016, according to which only gifts that are for personal use or of a very personal nature can be part of a president’s private collection.

The Customs Regulation (decree 6,759/2009) and the normative instructions of the Federal Revenue also do not allow for State gifts to be transported packed in personal luggage.

If this occurs, it is necessary to declare to customs that the destination is private, with payment of 50% taxes on the value exceeding US$1,000 (around R$5,000).

In April, Bolsonaro gave a statement to the Federal Police as an investigator.

Today, the jewelry is under the control of the Federal Police.

In the most recent episode of the case, lieutenant colonel Mauro Cid, who was aide-de-camp to the Presidency under Bolsonaro, told the PF that he handed over part of the money from the sale of luxury watches received as state gifts into the hands of the former president, according to a report in Veja magazine.

The value would be US$68,000, delivered in installments, with part transferred on American soil and the other in Brazil.

Bolsonaro has denied receiving money from the sale of jewelry.

The TCU identified that, of 1,073 gifts received from 2002 to 2016, only 15 had been incorporated into public assets. As a result, it ordered the return of 434 gifts from Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and 117 from Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016).