what the PF says and who are investigated

With the request for ex-president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to break bank and tax secrecy made by the Federal Police (PF), the case of Saudi jewels gained yet another development in the scope of investigations. In a press release, this Friday (11), the former president’s defense stated that he makes his bank transactions available to the courts.

This Friday morning, the PF carried out search and seizure warrants against General Lourena Cid; Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid; another former aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Osmar Crivelatti; and lawyer Frederick Wassef, defender of the Bolsonaro family, according to the decision of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

Operation Lucas 12:2 was triggered within the scope of investigations into the receipt of official gifts by the former president’s government – ​​including sets of jewels received from Saudi Arabia – and which were not incorporated into the Union’s assets. in Brasília, São Paulo and Niterói.

According to the Federal Police, the main suspicion against those investigated is to use the government structure to “misappropriate goods of high patrimonial value, delivered by foreign authorities in official missions to representatives of the Brazilian State, through the sale of these items abroad”, says the corporation note.

The Army also spoke out about the case. In a statement to People’s Gazette, the institution said that the military “has been following the steps taken by the Court and collaborating with the ongoing investigations”. “It should be noted that the Brazilian Army does not condone any misconduct by any of its members,” said the Army.

The defense of the former president reinforced that the jewels and gifts were voluntarily delivered, in March of this year, along with a petition submitted to the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). “Regarding the facts aired today in the national press vehicles, President Jair Bolsonaro’s defense voluntarily and without being urged, petitioned the TCU — still in mid-March, pp –, requesting the deposit of the items in that Court, until the final decision on his treatment, which was actually done “, reinforces the defense. Read Bolsonaro’s positions on the case below.

The PF also reported that former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro will be called to testify at the inquiry. Investigators had access to a dialogue, via audio, in which Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former assistant, and Marcelo Câmara, special advisor to the former president, allegedly indicated that a gift had “disappeared with Mrs. [Bolsonaro, ex-primeira-dama]”. “What once was, once was. But if this one still has us right not to be a problem. Because one that went with Dona Michelle has already disappeared; so you don’t have a problem”, says Câmara in the audio.

Still according to the PF, Mauro Cid would have taken the gifts to the United States with the intention of selling them. He would have transported the objects on the same presidential plane in which Jair Bolsonaro traveled to Orlando, on December 30 last year, on the eve of the end of his term.

The PF’s allegation is that the gifts would be sold and the cash, supposedly, would be passed on to the former president.

Remember the jewelry case

The facts cited above are part of the unfolding of an operation initiated by the PF to determine whether there was embezzlement in the case of jewelry received by the government of the former president of Saudi Arabian authorities. One of the three packages is valued at R$16.5 million.

Members of the Bolsonaro administration would have tried to bring jewelry to Brazil initially valued at around R$16.5 million – a value that was later corrected by the Federal Revenue itself to R$5 million.

The case was exposed by the newspaper The state of Sao Paulo and new revelations involving alleged gifts from Saudi Arabia to the former president and his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, have emerged since the publication of the first news, on March 3.

The jewels were seized when a delegation of the former president returned to Brazil after an official trip to Saudi Arabia, in October 2021, at Guarulhos airport. The pieces would be in the backpack of a military man who was an advisor to the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Alburquerque.

According to a document from the Federal Revenue, the advisor said he had nothing to declare, but, when going through customs, an inspector asked him to place his backpack in the x-ray, where “the probable existence of jewelry was observed”. After a search, a pair of earrings, a ring, a necklace and a watch with diamonds were found.

Also according to the Revenue, Minister Bento Alburquerque would have tried to release the jewelry, claiming it was a gift for the then first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro. However, the agency denied the release.

To the PF, the then minister denied that he had knowledge of the final destination of the parts.

The law states that to enter the country with goods purchased abroad with a value greater than US$ 1,000, the traveler must declare the good and pay an import tax equivalent to 50% of the value of the product. In case of omission in the declaration, an additional fine of 25% of the value of the producer is stipulated. In the case of the former president, he would have to disburse around R$ 12 million.

Still according to the Estadão, the Bolsonaro government would have made attempts to recover the jewels through the Ministries of Economy, Mines and Energy and Foreign Affairs. One of them, on November 3, 2021, the Mines and Energy portfolio would have asked Itamaraty for assistance in the case. The Revenue, however, informed that this would only be possible if the tax and fine were paid.

In another attempt to recover the pieces in 2021, the Bolsonaro government would have claimed that the jewels 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”. The justification appears in a document released on social networks by the former head of the Special Secretariat for Social Communication Fabio Wajngarten, after the revelation of the case.

A letter from Bento Albuquerque’s office also from 2021 asked for the release of “withheld gifts”, claiming that it was “necessary and essential that the collection be given the appropriate legal destination”. The document, however, does not mention the destination that would be given to the jewels.

A few days before the end of the government, on December 28, 2022, another attempt to recover the jewels would have been made. Bolsonaro himself would have sent a letter to the Revenue asking for the release of the goods.

Bolsonaro denies wrongdoing

In statements issued throughout the operation, both Bolsonaro and Michelle denied any irregularities regarding the jewelry. In an interview with the broadcaster CNN Brazil, the former president stated that he was being “accused of a gift that I neither asked for nor received. There is no illegality on my part. I never practiced illegality”. He also denied having knowledge of the gifts that are withheld by the Federal Revenue – a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of diamond earrings. “I neither asked for nor received these other gifts,” he said.

Already in the position sent to the press on August 11, about requests for breach of banking and tax secrecy made by the PF, the defense of the former president reinforced that the jewels and gifts were handed over voluntarily, in March of this year, together with a petition delivered to the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU).

“Regarding the facts aired today in the national press vehicles, President Jair Bolsonaro’s defense voluntarily and without being urged, petitioned the TCU — still in mid-March, pp –, requesting the deposit of the items in that Court, until the final decision on his treatment, which in fact was done”, reinforces the defense.

Bolsonaro’s lawyers also reiterate that he “never appropriated or embezzled any public assets, making his bank transactions available to the Judiciary”.