Rio de Janeiro: Federal Police Investigate Corruption in Witzel Government

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At the heart of one of the worst crises in the Jair Bolsonaro administration, the Superintendency of the Federal Police of Rio de Janeiro has delivered a major blow to the political plans of Governor Wilson Witzel, one of the president’s rivals for the Presidency in 2022. When Operation ‘Favorito’ was launched, the Rio de Janeiro State Federal Police (PF) shed light on a corruption scandal involving public officials in the state, which began under ex-Governor Sérgio Cabral and continues under the current administration.

In one operation, the task force branch of Lava Jato disclosed allegedly shady relationships, with payment of kickbacks in exchange for contracts awarded without bids. The charges involve the portfolios of two Secretaries: Edmar Santos (Health) and Leonardo Rodrigues (Science, Technology, and Innovation). In all, five arrest warrants and 42 warrants for search and seizure were issued by judge Marcelo Bretas of the 7th Federal Criminal Court, who has supposedly been close to the governor.

The Operation ‘Favorito’ targeted entrepreneur Mário Peixoto, a figure known at the Guanabara Palace (state house) for more than a decade. Peixoto is close to another of Witzel’s secretaries: Lucas Tristão (Economic Development, Energy, and International Relations). After his arrest, Peixoto has supposedly maintained the tentacles of his criminal organization active by providing outsourced labor to the Witzel government, as the investigations uncovered through extensive documentation and phone interceptions, among other evidence.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), along with the Federal Police, estimates the group has embezzled some R$700 million from the state government’s already-burdened coffers since x-Governor Sergio Cabral’s administration. Governor Wilson Witzel is included in an inquiry at the Federal Superior Court (STJ) that investigates fraud in the purchase of ventilators for coronavirus patients.

Mário Peixoto, according to the MPF indictment, are still embroiled in shady deals at Edmar Santos’ Health Secretariat and at the Technical School Support Foundation (FAETEC) and the Center for Sciences and Distance Education Foundation (CECIERJ), both under Leonardo Rodrigues’ portfolio. The task force also found irregularities in the Traffic Department (Detran-RJ), which is influenced by Lucas Tristão and state deputies. Target of a Lava-Jato raid in 2018, the agency is part of the structure of Vice-Governor Claudio Castro. Sources told VEJA magazine that the dismissals of Santos, Rodrigues, and Tristão are not discarded, although the three were not included in the denunciation.

Despite Operation Favorito’s offensive against Mário Peixoto’s cohorts beginning last Friday, the PF and MPF had already requested the arrest of those involved in the case and the issuing of search and seizure warrants in February this year, having been authorized by Judge Bretas. With the judicial orders in their hands, the Federal Police officers were to comply with the orders on March 10th. However, the operation was aborted because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but investigations continued. To the prosecutors’ surprise, the entrepreneur maintained the same corrupt scheme targeting field hospitals for patients contaminated by the new virus. The facilities are behind schedule.

In one of the phone taps intercepted by Operation Favorito, on April 9th, Luiz Roberto Martins, one of the members of Mário Peixoto’s supposed criminal organization, talked to a caller. In the conversation, Luiz seems to be suspicious of what is to come. In one of the passages, he says: “Bretas can’t catch WW (Wilson Witzel), but he’s trying to catch one of them, either his friend, MP (Mário Peixoto), or the pastor,” he says. “Many people are going to be arrested,” he added. Unnamed in the MPF indictment, the pastor, according to VEJA, is Everaldo Pereira, of the Assembleia de Deus (Assembly of God) Church and the head of PSC, Witzel’s political party. Everaldo allegedly has influence with Witzel.

By order of the secretary

Arrested on suspicion of directing irregularities in contracting services to fight the coronavirus without a public bid, former Rio executive undersecretary of Health Gabriell Neves blamed his former boss, the state Secretary of Health, Edmar Santos, for having conducted all of the portfolio’s emergency agreements. The statements were disclosed exclusively in Neves’ interview to VEJA. “The purchases were decided by Secretary Edmar Santos or with his consent. Other people could also, eventually, request a need. But everything was made in agreement with the Secretary. He endorsed what was requested by the technical staff”, he explained. The arrest of Gabriell Neves is part of Operation ‘Mercadores do Caos’, by the State Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Police.

Gabriell Neves centralized all purchases conducted by the state Health Secretariat. He assumed the post in early February this year, appointed by Edmar Santos. The two met in 2016. That year, Neves was state Secretary of Science and Technology in the government of Luiz Fernando Pezão, arrested in Operation Lava Jato. At the time, Santos was in charge of the Pedro Ernesto University Hospital.

Election slush fund

In the MPF task force’s list of charges, the prosecutors cite the deposition of former FAETEC president Carlos Fernando Riqueza Marinho. According to Marinho, there was pressure on the body to sign emergency contracts with Mário Peixoto’s companies. To the Federal Police, he said he heard that the money embezzled would be used to fund a potential candidacy of Secretary Leonardo Rodrigues to become Mayor of Mesquita, a city on the outskirts of Rio in the Baixada Fluminense. Rodrigues’ Secretariat closed R$36 million in contracts with Peixoto’s Atrio Rio Service.

Leonardo Rodrigues is the second alternate for the seat of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The two moved apart after Flavio’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, broke off relationships with Wilson Witzel. Pressured by the presidential family to leave office after the dispute, Rodrigues, an entrepreneur in the aviation industry, preferred to remain an ally of the Governor of Rio.

The entrepreneur and the attorney

Mario Peixoto is linked to Secretary Lucas Tristão. Behind the scenes, the two purportedly act jointly in appointments to various bodies in the Witzel government. The most telling incident occurred in the failed attempt to appoint Bernardo Sarreta to head the Energy and Basic Sanitation Regulatory Agency (AGENERSA). With no experience in the field, the appointee was rejected by a Rio Legislative Assembly committee (ALERJ). It was the first time in 15 years that a political appointment had been denied. The AGENERSA governs energy, gas, and sanitation services in Rio, a political and financial lode.

Tristão championed entrepreneur Mário Peixoto at Atrio Rio Service Technology and Services. According to VEJA, Peixoto’s family has a stake in Atrio as a partner of MG Asset Management and Consulting. The Secretary also provided legal services for Wilson Witzel’s election campaign when he became one of its main coordinators. The two met in the law faculty of the University of Vila Velha. Witzel, who worked as a federal judge in Espírito Santo, had been Tristão’s professor.

Early this year, Lucas Tristão was pivotal in the government’s greatest crisis with ALERJ. He was accused by deputies of being responsible for producing files against the deputies in a game of self-interest. A group lodged a motion for impeachment against Witzel over suspicions. Amid the crossfire, the president of ALERJ, André Ceciliano, declared that Tristão had said, for anyone who wanted to hear, that he possessed documents against all 70 politicians in the Chamber. The Secretary has always denied this.

Below, the full official note from Governor Wilson Witzel:

“By order of Governor Wilson Witzel, the State Comptroller General (CGE) and the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE) on Thursday, May 14th, sent a letter requesting Federal courts to provide information on companies and people involved in today’s operation to examine and analyze all suspicions raised by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

All contracts signed by the State Government with the companies involved will be audited by the CGE in order to ascertain potential illegalities and damage to public coffers. Cross-references will also be made between companies’ articles of incorporation to determine collusion between companies and their partners. While the CGE audit is in progress, all payments to the audited suppliers will be suspended and, if irregularities are found, these contracts will be canceled.

‘I have instructed the CGE and the PGE to conduct a thorough audit of all government contracts with these companies. If irregularities are found, the contracts will be canceled. If there is involvement of government employees and officials, they will be dismissed,’ says Governor Wilson Witzel.

The governor further reiterates his respect for the institutions: “I endorse the investigations being conducted by the control bodies, which are detecting irregularities. It is unacceptable that people should want to commit illicit acts, particularly at this time of pandemic and of fighting for the lives of thousands of people,” Witzel says.

Source: Veja