Bolsonaro Issues Provisional Measure Transfering COAF to Central Bank

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Central Bank released a note on Monday, August 19th, in which it reported that President Jair Bolsonaro had issued a Provisional Measure (PM) transferring COAF from the Ministry of Economy to the Central Bank.

According to the note, the Financial Activities Control Council will henceforth be called the Financial Intelligence Unit and will enjoy “technical and operational independence”.

Earlier this Monday, Julia Duailibi, a G1 and GloboNews columnist, reported that the PM text would be published on Tuesday, August 20th, in the Federal Gazette.

Provisional measures have the force of law as soon as they are published. After that, the National Congress has up to 120 days to vote on the PM, passing the text as the government submitted it or amending its content. Should the measure not be passed within this time frame, it will expire.

When taking office in January, Bolsonaro transferred COAF from the former Ministry of Treasury to the Ministry of Justice. After examining the PM that restructured the government in May, Congress discarded the change, moving the COAF back to the Ministry of Economy.

Last week, however, Bolsonaro said he would transfer the COAF to the Central Bank to remove the body from the “political game”.

The controversy

According to G1 and GloboNews columnist Valdo Cruz, Bolsonaro’s allies had been pressing the president to dismiss COAF chief Roberto Leonel.

Leonel, appointed by Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, was critical of a ruling by Federal Supreme Court Presiding justice Dias Toffoli.

In July, Toffoli suspended investigations based on data shared by the COAF without prior judicial authorization. The ruling was made in response to a request from Senator Flávio Bolsonaro’s (PSL-RJ) lawyers, representing one of the president’s sons.

According to COAF, atypical financial transactions by Fabrício Queiroz, Flávio Bolsonaro’s driver, were detected in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro during the time when the senator was a state legislator.

According to the entity, Queiroz had numerous atypical banking transactions, amounting to R$1.2 million, between 2016 and 2017.