RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former advisors in Rio de Janeiro to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, were the targets of a search and seizure operation on Wednesday morning.
According to O Globo, the action carried out by the Rio de Janeiro Prosecutor’s Office took place at the addresses of Fabrício Queiroz, the linchpin of an investigation against Flávio for suspicious financial transactions in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro.
Relatives of Ana Cristina Valle, former wife of the president and mother of his fourth son, Jair Renan, were also targeted.
The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that the operation is related to the investigation against Queiroz and reported that 24 warrants were served by the Specialized Task Force to Fight Corruption (GAECC).
However, it did not provide details of the targets, claiming that the investigation is under secrecy. The measures were determined by judge Flavio Itabaiana de Oliveira Nicolau, at the 27th Criminal Court of Rio.
Queiroz worked for over ten years – from 2007 to October 2018 – in Flávio’s office, when he was a deputy in Rio’s Legislative Assembly
Close to the Bolsonaro family and referred to as a friend by the president, the former advisor and retired state police officer became known following a COAF (federal financial intelligence agency) report that showed unusual transactions amounting to R$1.2 million (US$300,000).
The transactions include transfers received and sent, over one year, in amounts that the authorities deemed incompatible with the recipient’s income and activity.
In addition to the high sum, it was regarded as unusual for Queiroz to have received deposits from other cabinet employees, which suggests the practice of “splitting” – when public employees are forced to kick back part of their salaries to the deputies who hired them or to their allies.
Another transaction drawing attention in the report was a check for R$24,000 to today’s first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro. The president says that the transfer was partial repayment of a loan from Queiroz to the first lady.
The suspicions against Queiroz led the Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation against Flávio himself on suspicion of money laundering and embezzlement of public money.
The case was suspended for four months by the presiding Justice of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Dias Toffoli, on grounds that there had been a breach of confidentiality in the sharing by COAF of the deputy’s financial information with investigators – a decision that resulted in the suspension of over 900 similar investigations.
In late November, however, the full court decided that this type of procedure is legal, and the investigation into the senator was resumed.
The name of Ana Cristina Valle, who was Jair Bolsonaro’s partner between 1998 and 2008, arose in the investigation after her relatives had had their financial confidentiality breached by court order.
The Prosecutor’s Office suspects that her relatives, including Bolsonaro’s former father-in-law and a former sister-in-law, acted as ghost employees in Flávio’s office in Resende (RJ). Ms. Valle, who ran unsuccessfully in 2018 for a seat as a federal deputy under the name of Cristina Bolsonaro, is not being directly investigated.
In a note, Fabrício Queiroz’s defense states that Wednesday’s operation was “entirely uncalled for, since he has always cooperated with the investigations, and has already provided all the clarifications regarding the facts”.
According to attorney Paulo Klein, the operation is irregular, since the senator enjoys special privileges.
“It is surprising that although the Prosecutor’s Office having conceded that the First Instance Court would be unqualified to process and judge any request related to the former deputy [Flávio Bolsonaro], it has done so and obtained the referred decision”.
Source: El Pais