SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – After eight years of judicial delays, the statutory limitations period has expired, and Bishop Edir Macedo, leader of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, can no longer be sentenced for charges brought against him. Macedo, leader of one of the largest religions in Brazil is also closely linked to current Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro.
Bishop Macedo was charged with money laundering, evasion of currency, criminal association, and misrepresentation.
According to prosecutors the sentences against the religious leader have been waiting to be rendered since 2018, but the judge overseeing the case, Silvia Maria Rocha, continued to postpone her decision, which led to all charges against Macedo being barred by reason of the statute of limitations.
According to Rocha the case had ‘serious problems’ from the outset and the charges against Macedo, ‘remained substantially dehydrated, disfigured’.
“For a number of legal reasons that are not up to me, and which I am unable to discuss at the moment, the prosecution has lost the ‘bulk’ of (the case’s) importance,” said Rocha recently.
If sentenced Macedo, 74, would have benefited from the Penal Code rule that halves the statutory limitations period in which to render sentences for offenders over 70. Money laundering, for example, has a 16-year limitations period, which is reduced to eight years in Macedo’s case.
According to prosecutors, Macedo headed an organization that used offshore companies based in tax havens and foreign bank accounts. During the trial, prosecution provided a history of financial operations conducted by Universal officials since the early 1990s, showing exchange of money sometimes took place at Universal’s temple parking lots and sent to accounts controlled by Universal’s affiliates at five US banks. The money returned to Brazil through offshore loans to Universal-related individuals and used to buy shares in local and national radio and TV stations as well as expensive, luxurious assets.
The Universal Church claimed the accusations were “completely misleading and almost identical to those that gave rise to lawsuits and investigations that have already been tried and found to be not true”.
“Although persecuted and investigated for a long time by judicial authorities, the court itself has recognized the innocence of Bishop Edir Macedo. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is convinced that this process will have equal fate,” read a statement placed on the Church’s website during the legal proceedings.
Created on July 9, 1977, by Macedo, The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which often goes by the Portuguese acronym, IURD, is one of the largest neo-Pentecostal groups in Brazil.
According to the Brazilian Statistics Institute (IBGE) in 2010 the IURD had over 1.8 million followers in Brazil alone, with 12,000 pastors holding religious services in approximately 6,000 shrines. IURD claims it has over eight million followers in 115 countries around the world.
The church, first housed in a former funeral home in the city of Rio de Janeiro, today has 10,000-seat sanctuary in São Paulo city for its followers called the Templo de Salomão (Solomon’s Temple).
The eighteen-story mega-structure has walls of imported granite and marble and is a precise replica of Solomon’s Temple, in Jerusalem, only four times larger than the original temple. More than five thousand people are said to attend ceremonies there during weekends.
In addition to leading one of the largest religious groups in the country, Macedo is also owner of Brazil’s third largest TV network, Record, and owns 49 percent of a bank, Banco Renner. He has also been linked to the creation of a political party, Republicano. According to a 2015 Forbes ranking, Macedo was one of the richest men in the country with a wealth of over US$1.1 billion.
Macedo was also a strong supporter of the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro to the Presidency in 2018, and is said to have used his power to help elect Brazil’s first Evangelical president.
Bolsonaro’s victory on a far-right platform was made possible by historic levels of support from Brazil’s over 40 million Evangelicals, a great majority of whom are from the Universal Church.
With the recent internal crisis in Bolsonaro’s PSL party, there have been rumors that the President and his political supporters may switch political parties. One of the possibilities would be the Republicano party, formerly PRB. The party, dubbed a centrist party in Brazil’s political scenario, has no representatives in the first echelon of the Bolsonaro government, but Macedo has appeared in several state ceremonies alongside the President.
In September, 2019, while on a visit to the Temple of Solomon and attending a prayer ceremony, President Bolsonaro received a blessing from Bishop Macedo.