RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The investigation into the alleged kickback scheme of Rio’s Legislative Assembly (ALERJ) employees’ wages, the so-called ‘rachadinha’ (splitting), is expected to progress this year over suspected money laundering through a chocolate store located in a shopping mall and owned by the president´s son Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
According to sources close to the investigation, Jair Bolsonaro´s other son, city councilor Carlos Bolsonaro, could also be targeted by the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office (MP-RJ).
Last year’s intensified investigations led to the arrest of Flavio’s ex-driver Fabrício Queiroz in June, while he was in hiding in Atibaia, on the property of Frederick Wassef, attorney for President Jair Bolsonaro’s family.
In early November, the MP-RJ accused Flávio, his wife, Queiroz and 14 other ex-advisors in Flavio’s state legislative office cabinet. The 290-page indictment brief is pending examination by the Rio de Janeiro Court of Appeals (TJ-RJ).
Alleged scheme had Queiroz as operator
Queiroz is pointed out as the operator of the alleged scheme that would have drained the Legislative Assembly of Rio’s coffers for over ten years. Other key points in the investigation were left out of the charges by prosecutors. Among these is the alleged use of a chocolate store in Barra da Tijuca, western Rio, to launder money.
The ex-deputy and a partner allegedly engaged in fraud at a Kopenhagen franchise, the investigators suspect. They would use the business books to “launder” money embezzled from the wages of employees appointed by Flávio. They did not work and would pass on part of their wages to Queiroz. Flávioe has always denied the charges.
“In addition to the aspects and structure described herein (in the accusation), it is worth noting the continuity of investigations to ascertain other potential members and/or core of the criminal organization, particularly the potential presence of a financial core primarily intended to launder money through ‘strawmen’ and companies such as Bolsotini Chocolates e Café Ltda,” the MP points out in the document submitted to the TJ-RJ.
Over 90% of salaries were drawn
Another group mentioned throughout the investigations that was left out of the indictment is almost 200 kilometers away from downtown Rio, in the municipality of Resende. Ten relatives of Ana Cristina Siqueira Valle, the President’s second wife, live there, in southern Rio de Janeiro state.
Appointed for years to positions Flávio’s cabinet in ALERJ, which has offices only in the city of Rio, they lived in Resende. As the MP showed, they drew in cash over 90% of what they were paid by the Legislature. This practice supports the evidence that a “salary splitting” scheme occurred.
The kickbacks, if proved, would constitute embezzlement, the official term for the misappropriation of public money by a civil servant.
Links with militiamen
In the indictment, some of the alleged core gang members investigated over the past two years were therefore prioritized. Among them are people linked to Queiroz – such as his wife, daughters and neighbors – and the militiaman Adriano Magalhães da Nóbrega. He was killed in February 2020 by the Bahia State Police and had his mother and ex-wife employed in Flávio’s cabinet for years.
The senator’s real estate transactions, one of the main methods of money laundering detailed by the Prosecutor’s Office, were also included in the indictment. In 2021, the groups that were left out of the first stage of the charges should come to light, as stated by the Prosecutor’s Office.
While these new stages do not unfold, Flávio is also expected to become a defendant pn charges of embezzlement, money laundering and criminal organization awaiting a formal indictment to be issued by the TJ-RJ’s Special Body – the highest branch of the Rio de Janeiro Judiciary.
The impediments stem much more from procedural issues alleged by the senator’s defense than from the substance of the charges. An ex-advisor, Luiza Souza Paes, has already confessed to the Prosecutor’s Office that the scheme was in place in the then deputy’s cabinet.
Carlos is suspected of having ‘ghost’ advisors in his cabinet
As the Bolsonaro family legislators have always been in the habit of exchanging advisors between them, the investigation surrounding Flávio may coincide with the findings of similar suspicions concerning his brother Carlos Bolsonaro.
In the investigation into the Rio de Janeiro city councilor, President Jair Bolsonaro’s second son, which has not made as much progress as the senator’s, there are several ex-employees under investigation in the Assembly’s “splitting” case. Among them are Ana Cristina Siqueira Valle’s relatives. She is also under investigation herself, as she worked for her stepson in the Rio de Janeiro capital’s City Hall cabinet.
For now, what is known about the investigations targeting the city councilor’s cabinet, begun in mid-2019, is focused on the potential embezzlement by “ghost” employees. This is how Flávio’s case began a year before, which soon progressed to other aspects that led to the suspected money laundering.
As Estadão disclosed in September, the city councilor also conducted unusual real estate transactions during his public life. At age 20, in 2003, he paid R$150,000 in cash for a property in Tijuca, in the northern part of Rio. Six years later, he paid 70% below the city council’s valuation – based on market prices – for the purchase of an apartment in Copacabana, in the south zone.
Evidence of money laundering
The two practices – the use of funds in cash and the purchase at prices lower than the market evaluation for tax calculation – typically raise suspicions among investigators working in the money laundering area. These are also points included in the investigation into Flávio.
The two brothers have always denied the accusations and alleged political persecution. The others involved have not commented.
On December 31st, during a live stream, President Bolsonaro challenged the Rio Prosecutor’s Office’s impartiality and asked what the body would do if a prosecutor’s son were investigated for drug trafficking.
Early this month, the acting governor of Rio, Cláudio Castro will have to choose the new head of the Prosecutor’s Office. An ally of the Bolsonaro family and depending on them for political muscle, he will appoint one of the three members on the Prosecutor’s Office’s three-name list – none of them openly Bolsonarist. Rio de Janeiro politicians believe that the Bolsonaro clan will be heard before the choice is made.
Source: O Estado de S. Paulo