Tony Garcia says he was an undercover agent for Moro – 05/06/2023 – Politics

Curitiba businessman and former state deputy Antônio Celso Garcia, known as Tony Garcia, 70, claims he was forced to record people illegally at the request of prosecutors and former federal judge Sergio Moro after signing an award-winning collaboration agreement in 2004 .

“I was their undercover agent,” he said in an interview with Sheet, on Friday (2). The case was revealed by Veja magazine.

The alleged illegalities, according to Garcia, were revealed to federal judge Gabriela Hardt in 2021. In November 2022, the magistrate terminated the old whistleblowing agreement, in response to a request from the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in 2018. The businessman’s defense is still appealing the decision.

Garcia claims that, although she pointed out the illegal actions of the authorities involved in her accusation, the judge did not take any measures.

According to him, his report was made during a hearing in 2021 and the content was sent to the STF (Federal Supreme Court) only in April of this year, by decision of Judge Eduardo Appio – removed from office since May 22 on suspicion of disciplinary infraction.

According to Garcia, he gave testimony to the judge to detail his performance as a collaborator, “so that she would form a value judgment before sentencing such barbarity”, that is, the request for termination made by the MPF.

“At that hearing, I surprised even my lawyers, who didn’t know anything, and I put everything I was forced to do. I was an undercover agent [de Moro e dos procuradores]”, he said, referring to the years following the plea agreement, between 2005 and 2006.

“They [procuradores] they made me carry two of their phones with an open microphone. That’s how I recorded the [advogado] Roberto Bertholdo, a lot of people, for them. When they caught conversations that interested them, they took them to Moro and he warmed up the conversations. He acted as if he had judicial authorization, with a retroactive date.”

Garcia claims that he has evidence to corroborate the statements and that he intends to show them to the STF.

Today a senator for União Brasil, Moro said in a note that the businessman makes a “lying report and dissociated from any support in reality or in any evidence”.

The report contacted Gabriela Hardt on Friday, through the Federal Justice press office, but did not receive a response.

Garcia claims that he often gave telephone numbers to agents of the Federal Police of Brasilia staying in Curitiba.

“An agent had a Guardian, [sistema] which records multiple phones at the same time. Almost every day, we met at 6 pm in front of the Mueller mall. I would take him, he would get in my car, and I would pass phone numbers for him to tap”, he narrated.

According to the businessman, Moro and the prosecutors had a special interest in lawyer Roberto Bertholdo, because of the supposed influence he would have with federal judges from the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region).

Former advisor to the MDB in Brasilia, Bertholdo is a well-known lobbyist and has already been accused of alleged influence peddling and illegal telephone interception (including conversations by Moro). He was also Garcia’s alternate in a Senate race.

Garcia cites the names of Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima and Januário Paludo among the Lava Jato prosecutors who allegedly forced him to record people illegally.

Carlos Fernando, now retired, called the whistleblower’s speeches “clowning”. The report has not yet been able to contact Paludo, who is currently working at the Regional Attorney of the Republic of the 4th Region.

Tony Garcia failed in elections, was arrested and signed collaboration

Garcia’s name emerged in Paraná’s politics in the 1990s, when he decided to run for the Senate with the support of then-presidential candidate Fernando Collor, of whom he claimed to be a friend. The application was unsuccessful.

In 1992, he failed in another election, this time for the City Hall of Curitiba. He managed to be elected state representative in 1998, but served only one term and abandoned politics.

In 2004, Garcia was arrested by the PF, accused of fraudulent management of the Garibaldi National Consortium. He agreed to do an award-winning collaboration, at the end of that year, with prosecutors from the task force of the Banestado case with the 2nd Federal Court of Curitiba (current 13th Court).

In the agreement, ratified by Moro, who was in charge of the case, Garcia narrated 30 illegal situations involving politicians, lawyers, businessmen and judicial authorities. The document stated that he was “obliged to provide material proof” of his reports.

Garcia claims that the MPF’s request to terminate its collaboration agreement is linked to an episode in 2018, when it provided recordings to Gaeco (Special Group to Combat Organized Crime), the criminal arm of the State Public Ministry of Paraná.

The audios fueled denunciations against former governor Beto Richa (PSDB), now a federal deputy.

According to him, MPF prosecutors insisted on obtaining full access to recordings that were kept with Garcia, with the aim of adding elements to an investigation against Richa, but within the scope of Federal Justice.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to give it. But I was demanding that, to hand over the pen drive [com as gravações], they would annul my agreement with Gaeco, so that I would be protected. That’s when they started retaliating,” he said.

According to Garcia, the then attorney Deltan Dallagnol, elected federal deputy by Podemos and today impeached by the TSE, began “a lot of arbitrariness to get me to deliver [o pen drive] by force”.

“Deltan sent for all the footage on the floor where my office is located, in the Curitiba Trade Center, to find out who had gone there. They had a Guantánamo”, said the businessman, alluding to the prison maintained in Cuba by the US government.

In July 2018, Garcia delivered the pen drive and entered into an agreement with Gaeco, with the MPF as consenting party. Deltan was sought this Monday (5), but has not yet responded.

The MPF maintains that the rescission of the agreement was requested from the Justice because Garcia lied, hiding the ownership of the company Eldorado Corretora de Mercadorias Ltda., which sold imported vehicles. For the Attorney General’s Office, there was an omission of taxes resulting from trade.

One of the consequences of the termination of the accusation is that a criminal action in which Garcia appears as a defendant, and which was suspended, returned to processing. The businessman’s defense classifies the decision as “mistaken and abusive”, since the rescission has not yet become final, that is, there is still a chance of appeal.

Another consequence is the transfer to the Union of the property that Garcia left as collateral for the agreement, in the Curitiba Trade Center Office Building.