Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) will testify to the Federal Police (PF) this Wednesday 5, starting at 2pm, to provide clarifications on the Arab jewelry scandal, revealed by the Stadium in early March. The testimony will be in person, in Brasilia. Also at PF, on Thursday 6, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s assistant, will be heard.
In 2021, the Bolsonaro government attempted to illegally enter Brazil with a set of diamond necklace, ring, watch and a pair of earrings worth 3 million euros, the equivalent of R$16.5 million, from the brand Chopard. According to the first statements, it would have been a gift from the Saudi Arabian government to the then president and former first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.
Navy Lieutenant Marcos André Soeiro, former adviser to Bento Albuquerque, Admiral of the Navy who served as minister of mines and energy, was responsible for the attempt to bring the jewels to the country, seized at Guarulhos airport, in San Paul.
See the timeline of the scandal:
October 2021
The then Minister of Mines and Energy in the Bolsonaro government, Bento Albuquerque, returns to Brazil after representing the country at a summit meeting in Saudi Arabia. Upon arrival at Guarulhos airport in São Paulo, the Admiral of the Navy squadron and his entourage attempt to illegally pass through customs with jewels delivered by the Saudi government. In the backpack of his adviser Marcos André Soeiro there was a box with a necklace, a watch and other items with diamonds worth R $ 16.5 million, and in which it was seized by the Federal Revenue Service.
That same day, after learning the package was with IRS auditors, Albuquerque uses its position to try to get IRS auditors to release the contents. To the Stadium, claimed to have no knowledge of the contents that were in the box. Three days after the unsuccessful attempts to bring the diamonds, the then Deputy Chief of Cabinet for Historical Documentation in the Personal Office of the President of the Republic, Marcelo da Silva Vieira, sent a letter to the Chief of Cabinet of the Minister of Mines and Energy, José Roberto Bueno Júnior, arguing that the jewels would be incorporated into the “private collection of the President of the Republic or in the public collection of the Presidency of the Republic”.
November 2021
Bolsonaro triggers the Foreign Ministry, which asks the Federal Revenue Agency to take “the necessary measures to release the detained assets”. The institution firmly refuses to return the parcel and the government decides to change its version and say that the jewels were for the presidency’s collection, without specifying which. In response, the Revenue Agency again informs that it would be possible to withdraw only through the usual procedures in these cases, with discharge of the fine and the tax due.
December 2022
A year after the attempted illegal entry into the country, the then Federal Minister of Revenue, Julio Cesar Viera Gomes, sent a letter to the customs area of São Paulo asking for the package to be released. The employees of the agency, who have autonomy, reiterate their position and affirm that the jewels would be released only upon payment of the fee.
OR Stadium found that Gomes lobbied servers of various departments, through text messages sent from applications such as WhatsApp, recorded audio, phone calls and forwarded emails on the subject.
Before leaving the country for the United States, the president himself took action and sent a letter to the Federal Revenue Office asking that the precious stones be sent to the Presidency of the Republic, in compliance with the letter of “Ajudancia de Ordens do Personal Cabinet of the President of the Republic”. The request is rejected again.
With two days left in his term, Bolsonaro determines that a government official, first sergeant of the navy, Jairo Moreira da Silva, will take a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) jet and land at Guarulhos airport, saying he was there to remove jewelry. The request was made by the head of Ajudância, at the time Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s right-hand man and trusted person.
second package
After landing in Sao Paulo and unable to return to Brasilia with the first package, Albuquerque personally delivers the second package of jewelry to former president Jair Bolsonaro, which has not passed customs. The case contained a watch with a leather strap, a pair of cufflinks, a rose gold pen, a ring and a rose gold masbaha (a kind of Islamic rosary), all from the Swiss brand Chopard. The shop’s website sells similar pieces that together fetch at least R$400,000.
As revealed by Mauro Cid al Stadium, the case is with Bolsonaro in his “private collection”. The entry of parts into Brazil without declaring them to the Revenue Agency and the appropriation by the president are irregular. The understanding of the Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) is that former presidents may only keep souvenirs of a “very personal nature,” such as clothing and perfume.
third package
Calculation of Stadium found that Jair Bolsonaro, when he finished his term in 2022, brought with him a third package of jewels which includes a Rolex watch, in white gold, encrusted with diamonds, a Chopard pen in silver, with inlaid stones, a pair of cufflinks in white gold, with a brilliant set in the center and other diamonds around.
The set also includes a white gold ring with a diamond in the center and others in the shape of a “baguette” around it, a masbaha, made in white gold and with pendants studded with diamonds. In all, the third gift box is estimated at more than R$500,000.
The report also found that this jewelry set, unlike the other two boxes sent to Bolsonaro, was received in the hands of the former president himself, when he was with his entourage on official trips to Doha, Qatar, and Riyadh, Saudi. Saudi . , between 28 and 30 October 2019.
The case for these jewels would remain in Bolsonaro’s private collection for more than a year and a half, until last year the then president gave new orders, this time to physically have the set in his hands. This occurred on June 6, 2022. On this date, it was recorded by the Presidency’s system that the articles were “forwarded to the office of President Jair Bolsonaro”. Two days later, on June 8, according to official records, the jewels were already “in the custody of the President of the Republic”.
Hidden gems
Former president Jair Bolsonaro has chosen the farm of Nelson Piquet, a former Formula 1 driver, to keep his boxes of gifts received during his mandate, such as diamond jewellery, which have not been declared to the federal tax authorities and which have not been delivered to ‘Union. OR Stadium discovered that dozens of boxes with personal belongings were shipped to a property located in Lago Sul, one of the noblest regions of Brasilia.
delivery of kits
Following a determination by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), lawyer Paulo Amador da Cunha Bueno delivered the second set of jewelry illegally received by former president Jair Bolsonaro at a branch of Caixa in Brasilia on March 24.
Five days later, on March 29, the TCU ordered former President Jair Bolsonaro to immediately return the third box of jewels he had received from the Saudi Arabian regime and which he was keeping for himself. In addition to determining the return of the items, the TCU warned Bolsonaro of the withholding of information related to gifts received from the Saudi regime.
One day before the expected testimony to the Federal Police, the defense of the former president delivered to the Caixa Econômica Federal, this Tuesday 4, the third jewel presented by the Saudi Arabian regime. The delivery of the case was determined by the TCU.
The return of the jewels was communicated by the former head of the Social Communications Secretariat (SECOM) and current Bolsonaro adviser, Fábio Wajngarten, on his official Twitter account. “The delivery reaffirms the commitment of President Bolsonaro’s defense to return all the gifts that the TCU requests, complying with the indications of the former president of the country, who has always complied with current legislation on the matter”. he has written.
Source: Terra
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