RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Thursday, September 17th, Rio de Janeiro’s City Council rejected impeachment proceedings against Mayor Marcelo Crivella, based on charges his responsibility for a scheme named “Kickback HQ” by investigators. The Rio Prosecutor’s Office identifies Crivella as a leading figure in a corruption structure set up at Riotur, Rio’s tourism company.
Son of Brazil’s President and a member of the Mayor’s political party, city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro voted against the opening petition. The City Council session occurred a week after the Mayor’s home and cabinet were the target of a search and seizure operation by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Police. The Mayor’s cell phone was seized in the operation, which took place on Thursday, September 10th.
The investigation against Crivella was opened last year based on a plea bargain by Sérgio Mizrahy, a loan shark in the city.
He named entrepreneur Rafael Alves, former leader of samba schools Salgueiro and Viradouro, as the one in charge of collecting kickbacks at Riotur. The municipal tourism company was chaired by his brother, Marcelo Alves, until March.
The whistleblower said that Rafael Alves was demanding kickbacks from companies hired by the municipality or that have debts to receive from past management. The loan shark said he would exchange checks he received from the entrepreneur for cash as a result of undue advantage in exchange for money.
According to investigators, the evidence seized – including messages exchanged through cell phones – shows Crivella’s close relationship with the entrepreneur. In authorizing the operation in Crivella’s home, Judge Rosa Helena Guita said that “the Mayor’s subservience to Rafael Alves is frightening.”
Isabel Lessa, the author of the impeachment petition, said “as if that were not enough, the existence of a corruption scheme and targeting of bids within Rioluz was also identified, as well as the manipulation of a bidding tender by the Secretariat of Public Order – SEOP – with the aim of hiring trailers.”
This is the fifth time that city councilors have considered impeachment petitions against the Mayor – twice in September alone. On Thursday, September 3rd, the City Council rejected the installation of impeachment proceedings against Crivella for administrative misconduct in the use of city officials to curtail the press outside hospitals.
Two impeachment petitions had been filed on Tuesday, September 1st, a day after a TV Globo report disclosed the existence of the so-called “Crivella’s Guardians,” who held government fiduciary positions and were assigned to prevent the press from taking statements from public health system users.
Source: Folhapress