Rio Prosecutor’s Office Completes Investigation; Flávio Bolsonaro to be Indicted

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After over two years, the Rio State Prosecutor’s Office (MP-RJ) completed its investigation into the alleged splitting scheme in Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s staff during his time as a state deputy in Rio.

The senator and his ex-advisor Fabrício Queiroz will be indicted for the crimes of embezzlement, money laundering, and criminal organization. Flávio will be identified as the leader of the criminal organization, and Queiroz, as the operator of the corruption scheme in the Rio Legislative Assembly (ALERJ).

The 300-page indictment is ready and should be forwarded to the Rio de Janeiro Court of Appeals (TJ-RJ) on Monday.

Using data obtained from banking and tax records, the prosecutors will show that the senator used at least R$2.7 million (US$540,000) in cash from the salary kickback scheme. The figures are based on the three methods used by President Jair Bolsonaro’s son to “launder” the cash.

In June, Queiroz was arrested in the home of attorney Frederick Wassef, in Atibaia, countryside of São Paulo. Wassef was Flávio’s attorney in the investigation until that time. He was brought to Rio to comply with his arrest in Bangu, but a habeas corpus granted by Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Gilmar Mendes allowed him to be placed under house arrest in his apartment in Taquara, in western Rio.

The MP-RJ investigation began in July 2018, after a report by the Financial Activities Control Council (COAF) found atypical transactions worth R$1.2 million in Queiroz’s account. In addition, it was pointed out in the document that eight of Flávio’s advisors made transfers to Queiroz, as well as noting the involvement of the former advisor’s relatives. Transfers and deposits by Márcia Aguiar, Nathália, and Evelyn Queiroz, wife and daughters of the lieutenant, were also found.

When the MP-RJ progressed in the investigations, after the court ordered breach of banking and fiscal secrecy of 106 individuals and companies in April 2019, it found evidence of a scheme in which advisors were appointed and would return most of their salaries to Fabrício Queiroz. Many of them were not effectively working and were “ghost employees“.

The money was passed on by transfers, deposits, but also in cash. According to the investigation, the money would be laundered and returned to Flávio through real estate transactions, through his chocolate store, and also in cash payment of personal expenses, which conceals the funds’ origin.

There are 23 former advisors mentioned in reports from the MP-RJ’s Special Action Group to Fight Corruption (GAECC). They are divided into three groups. The first, consisting of 13 ex-employees, is the group linked to Queiroz, comprising his relatives, as well as neighbors and friends whom he appointed to the office.

These 13 ex-advisors deposited R$2.06 million in Queiroz’s bank account (69 percent in cash) over the course of 11 years. Moreover, this group withdrew R$2.9 million in cash over this period.

The second group also includes Danielle Nóbrega and Raimunda Veras Magalhães, ex-wife and mother of Adriano Nóbrega, a former officer of BOPE (Battalion of Special Operations) and leader of a militia group in Rio das Pedras, who was killed in February. Together they transferred a total of R$200,000 to Queiroz. Raimunda’s pizzerias also transferred a further R$200,000 to Queiroz.

The third group described by the MP includes ten former advisors living in Resende, the city where members of the Bolsonaro family lived,about 300 kilometers west of Rio de Janeiro. Nine of them are related to Ana Cristina Siqueira Valle, a former wife and the mother of President Jair Bolsonaro’s youngest son. Of the ten ex-employees from Resende, six withdrew over 90 percent of their salaries in cash, and another three in excess of 70 percent. It was a total of R$4 million.

The MP-RJ also points out that some of these employees were not effectively working in Flávio’s cabinet nor acted as advisors. In the records, the prosecutors quoted a GLOBO report from June last year which pointed out four of these people who were listed as employees, but never actually exercised their positions at ALERJ.

Francisco Siqueira Diniz was a full-time university student in Barra Mansa (250 km west of Rio) and never owned an ALERJ badge. The case of Andrea Siqueira Valle, a bodybuilder, who was Flávio’s advisor for ten years, is also noted. Retired José Procópio Valle and Maria José Siqueira Silva, who have always lived in Resende, were also mentioned.

In all, the prosecutors listed six groups of the criminal organization in the case file. In addition to the advisors, three other groups mention those involved in money laundering: the group with Alexandre Santini, Flávio’s partner in the chocolate store, another with Glenn Dillard and his company Linear Enterprises Real Estate Consulting, and a last one with State Police officer Diego Ambrósio and his security company, Santa Clara Services.

Source: O Globo