RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A court test for the Bolsonarist voting base and for the president himself is about to take place this week. In anticipation, Bolsonaro’s supporters pledged to hold demonstrations in Brasília and other cities, calling for the ouster of Federal Supreme Court (STF) Justice Gilmar Mendes.
On November 20th, the 11 STF justices, sitting in plenary session, must judge if the Council of Control of Financial Activities (COAF), renamed the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), needs judicial authorization to obtain information on banking transactions of suspects as well as politically exposed individuals – among them, public officeholders, ministers of state, members of the Prosecutor’s Office, and the judiciary.
Meanwhile, the Bolsonaro clan remains uncharacteristically silent.
Costumarily adopting an offensive position on social media, both the president and his three political scions have barely mentioned the STF’s judicial decisions in recent weeks, including the one indirectly releasing ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or those that are yet to come.
The most active son in the virtual environment, heretofore in charge of spurring on the digital militia, Rio city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro (the second son) deleted his Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts on Tuesday, November 12th.
In an interview with O Antagonista, President Bolsonaro allowed he had a kind of pact not to interfere with other powers. “The pact is, I do not interfere there and they do not interfere here. Although from time to time they interfere in the executive branch, here, but I bite my tongue,” he said when asked about an alleged agreement with the judiciary and the legislature.
The main reason behind the clan’s silence is that one of those involved in the COAF case is former state deputy and now senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro has opened an investigation against the first-born son to determine whether he received irregular funds from his cabinet’s staff in the Legislative Assembly, in a salary kickback scheme called “rachadinha” (“splits”).
Flávio is being investigated for misappropriation of public funds, money laundering, and criminal organization. This investigation has been halted since July, when STF Presiding Justice, Dias Toffoli, granted an injunction sought by the senator’s defense counsel, claiming that the COAF data used in the investigation should be disqualified because they had not been obtained by a judicial decision.
However, there is a potential discrepancy between the desires of the Bolsonarist network and the three sons. Justice Gilmar Mendes has already publicly complained about investigations involving the COAF, and last month made a decision which benefited Flávio, reinforcing the need to halt the investigation involving the senator and his former advisor Fabrício Queiroz, the purported organizer of the salary kickback.
Gilmar’s vote in the COAF case is likely to help Flávio. Even so, the Bolsonarist militants are calling for Gilmar to be impeached and removed from office, mainly as a result of his criticism of Operation Lava Jato and his vote that helped overthrow imprisonment after an appeal of a conviction, which led to Lula being released from prison after 580 days in Curitiba.
The STF hearing on Wednesay, January 20th, will start from scratch. None of the 11 justices has voted so far. The first to do so will be Toffoli, the rapporteur for the case. And, as he has already responded favorably to Flávio’s counsel’s argument, his opinion should be consistent.
Sea of data and protest by new Prosecutor General
This week, Toffoli signaled yet again that he would follow in the same direction. Reports from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo showed that the STF presiding Justice ruled that both COAF and the Federal Treasury must provide him copies of reports produced by those bodies that contain banking transaction data on all those who have been the target of criminal prosecution by the tax authorities over the past three years.
COAF provided an access password to a system containing information on 600,000 individuals and companies; the Treasury is preparing to send documents involving 6,000 citizens and companies. Data leaks from both bodies show that among the people who may have had their accounts investigated are relatives of Justices Dias Toffoli and Gilmar Mendes.
The STF president’s preliminary ruling involving oversight bodies such as COAF and the Treasury, is part of a wave of persecution against the professionals of two of the country’s main oversight bodies, say tax officials heard by the report.
Last month, another Supreme Court Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, had already prevented Minister Bruno Dantas, head of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), from having access to data on tax office employees who were involved in the inspection of politically exposed individuals.
On Friday, November 15th, in the middle of the celebration of the Proclamation of the Republic, the Prosecutor General, Augusto Aras, contested Toffoli’s ruling involving the Treasury and COAF.
In a petition sent to the Supreme Court, Aras asked the Court to overturn Justice Toffoli’s individual decision on grounds it is out of proportion, threatens the country’s financial intelligence system, and could affect the free exercise of fundamental rights of more than 600,000 targets.
Only hours later, Toffoli denied Aras’ petition.
Last month, Brazil’s foremost international body to prevent money laundering, the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (GAFI), issued a statement expressing concern about the effectiveness of fighting white-collar crime if Toffoli’s decision involving COAF prevails.
“This provisional decision by the Court limits the ability of Brazilian authorities to use financial intelligence in criminal investigations, money laundering investigations, financial crimes as well as corruption,” said GAFI President Xiangmin Liu.
Source: El País