By Arkady Petrov
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PSL-RJ) filed his third judicial action against the investigation into his alleged criminal activities as a member of the of Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly that is being conducted by the Rio de Janeiro Public Prosecutors Office.
President Jair Bolsonaro’s (PSL) son’s defense team filed a habeas corpus petition with the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice last week against the ruling of Judge Flávio Itabaina, of the 27th Criminal Division, to lift his banking and tax secrecy.
The defense’s motion, which is being kept a secret, has arguments similar to those presented by the defense of Fabrício Queiroz, the senator’s former aide and a key player in the investigation.
Strong Evidence of Embezzlement
According to the Rio de Janeiro State Public Prosecutors Office, there is strong evidence of embezzlement, money laundering, and criminal organization in Flávio’s office from 2007 to 2018, when Queiroz worked with the then state deputy as a sort of chief of staff.
It was based on that evidence that the Public Prosecutors office requested the lifting of banking and tax secrecy of 86 people and nine companies.
Flávio’s defense points out illegalities in the magistrate of first instance’s decision, such as a lack of reasoning.
The judge’s justification for lifting secrecy takes up a paragraph of the document, using the reasons exposed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in 87 pages.
“The judge ruled to lift the banking and tax privileges of almost a hundred people because it is “important for the proceedings of the criminal investigation”, without saying anything else, without determining if the people affected have or had the slightest relation to the investigation, which means that this combative decision is not only lacking proper reasoning but is instead fully lacking any legal basis”, says the petition filed by Queiroz’s defense attorney Paulo Klein.
Appellate judge Antônio Amado will analyze Flávio’s and Queiroz’s habeas corpus petitions. Last month, before the decision to lift secrecy, he denied the senator’s preliminary injunction to stop the Public Prosecutors Office’s investigation.
The 3rd Criminal Chamber will yet analyze that case.
Flávio had already attempted to block the audit in the Supreme Federal Court (SFC) with a complaint against the Public Prosecutors Office, pointing out illegal lifting of banking secrecy by the Public Prosecutors.
A preliminary injunction by minister Luiz Fux interrupted the audit for 15 days, but the case was dropped afterward by minister Marco Aurélio Mello.
The Public Prosecutors Office’s investigation was opened after a federal government report pointed out atypical movements of R$1,2 million in Queiroz’s bank account, from January 2016 to January 2017.
Besides the amount being moved, the way that the movements occurred also drew attention: deposits and withdrawals in cash, in dates close to the payment of workers of the Assembly.
Queiroz has already admitted he received part of his colleagues’ salaries. He claims that he used that money to pay Flávio’s informal aides, without the knowledge of the then deputy.
Besides Flávio’s and Queiroz’s habeas corpus petitions, businessman Marcello Cattaneo Adorno, one of the persons in charge of MCA Participations, filed a writ of security against the judge’s decision.
The company was targeted for lifting secrecy after buying 12 rooms from the senator and creating a profit of R$300,000 over 45 days.
As a report of daily Folha de S.Paulo showed, the lifting of secrecy authorized by the Court in the Public Prosecutors Office’s investigation of Flávio affects people that were neither named by the senator nor had any financial transactions with Fabrício Queiroz.
The Public Prosecutors Office’s filing also wrongly attributes a female employee of the Assembly who held another job to Flávio’s office and has flaws in pointing out suspicions against Queiroz.