Use of cash was to pay small suppliers, says Bolsonaro’s defense – 05/15/2023 – Politics

The defense of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Monday (15) that the use of cash to pay expenses of the former president and his family during his term at the head of the Executive served to cover costs with small suppliers.

Fabio Wajngarten, former secretary of Communication in the Bolsonaro government, said that an expert will be hired to “show that there is no mismatch between inflows and outflows of funds” from the former president’s account amid ongoing investigations by the Federal Police.

“There is no crossing of withdrawals, 100% of the cost of living for the president’s family came exclusively from the president’s personal account”, he said.

He also claimed that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro used a friend’s credit card because, according to her, Bolsonaro is “very cheap”.

The statements were given at a press conference after the revelation that the Federal Police asked for the breach of banking, tax and telematic secrecy of a Bolsonaro assistant to investigate transactions between him and a company with federal government contracts, one of which was funded with parliamentary amendment money.

The requests were authorized by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court). The PF’s requests are based on messages from Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s right-hand man and who was head of the Presidency’s Orders Assistance.

Wajngarten, however, stated that there was no irregularity in Cid’s performance and that withdrawals made from Bolsonaro’s account served to pay family expenses.

“When the supplier’s CNPJ existed, the president paid the bills and all extracts will be presented by the defense.”

According to him, “in the case of small suppliers, informal suppliers or those who do not have a CNPJ”, Bolsonaro drew “through his assistant” some values ​​​​that are in the spreadsheet and which, he says, will be made “available to the press in due course” .

The former secretary also said that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro used a friend’s credit card, Rosimary Cardoso, because she had no limit on her own card “because she does not have a compatible income”.

“She accepted this card in November 2011. How it worked: Mrs. Michelle made small purchases and reimbursed Rosimary month by month”, he said, before stating that the defense will present all reimbursements made.

“The card remained in force until August 2021, when, midway through her term, the bank offered her a card and she no longer needed that additional card,” Wajngarten said.

The PF says it has identified a possible articulation for the diversion of public money in the Bolsonaro government at the request of former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro.

According to the PF, the suspicion involves the advice of the ex-president’s wife and his employees from the Presidency’s Orders Assistance, which was headed by Mauro Cid.

In September of last year, the Sheet revealed that the PF had found the suspicious transactions after analyzing data found on Cid’s cell phone and cloud, who was Bolsonaro’s right hand man in the government.

As revealed by UOL on Saturday (13), audios of conversations between two assistants to the first lady, Cintia Borba Nogueira and Giselle dos Santos Carneiro da Silva, with each other and with Mauro Cid suggest concern about payments on Michelle’s bills.

A Sheet also had access to the transcript of the conversations. In one of the audios, those involved claim that the situation with the card used by Michelle is worrying.

“The analysis of the expenses incurred on the additional card in Michelle’s name, considering the nature and places, such as high-end establishments, places with complicated access in terms of the degree of security and exposure, indicate that they were possibly expenses incurred by a third person, different from the first lady”, says the PF in a document obtained by the report.