The progress of the investigation into the murder of Marielle Franco has highlighted the existence of a tangle of crimes that have no direct relationship with the councilor’s execution plan. Suspicions range from the deviation of parliamentary amendments to fraud by the Rio Civil Police.
The Federal Police (PF) is now seeking permission from the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to share evidence with the relevant bodies and ensure the opening of autonomous investigations.
The examination of documents, cell phones, USB sticks, HDs and computers seized in Operation Murder Inc, which arrested the deputy Chiquinho Brazão and his brother, councilor of the Court of Auditors of the State of Rio de Janeiro (TCE-RJ), Domingos Brazão, has triggered new alarms among the Federal Police.
Over the last two months, PF agents have meticulously analyzed the material in search of elements that could complement the investigation and corroborate the statements of Ronnie Lessa and Élcio Queiroz.
The information obtained from the files and conversations went beyond the limits of the investigation into the councilor’s death and put the Federal Police on the trail of new suspects.
Splice deviation
One of the expert investigations requested by the Federal Police concerns the possible deviation of parliamentary amendments. For the PF there is “vehement” evidence that MP Chiquinho Brazão (no party) and former MP Pedro Augusto Palareti (PP-RJ) directed the funds to obtain “undue advantages”.
Conversations between Robson Calixto da Fonseca, known as “Peixe”, advisor to Domingos Brazão, and representatives of the NGO Contato, which benefited from the changes, led investigators to suspect an illicit enrichment scheme.
The PF claims to have come across a “routine of requests” from the NGO’s adviser. He would have asked for transfers to a company linked to his family. According to investigators, Peixe wanted to “maintain a two-way street.”
“In the list of photographs present on the device, images relating to parliamentary amendments, handwritten notes denoting the allocation of large sums of money intermediated by Peixe, projects of interest to the Brazão family, intermediation with deputies and other authorities and sale of luxury goods were found,” reads an excerpt from the federal police report.
Money laundry
The seized material also strengthened the PF’s suspicions about the evolution of the Brazão family’s assets.
Investigators managed to obtain contracts linking the Chiquinho brothers and Domingos to dozens of properties in western Rio, an area dominated by the militia, and to petrol stations. The suspicion is that the real estate transactions and the petrol station network were used to launder money from illicit activities.
“Anchored by the appearance of legality that exudes from the profusion of companies in which he is a member, Domingos Brazão did not even bother to hide his dizzying financial evolution from the tax authorities”, states the PF. “His preferential option to invest in gas stations provided him with ample opportunities to receive millions of reais in cash, through deposits in companies in which he was a shareholder.”
Rivaldo Barbosa
One of the requests for investigation concerns the former head of Rio’s Civil Police, Rivaldo Barbosa, and his wife, the lawyer Érika Andrade de Almeida Araújo, appointed as her husband’s frontman in companies allegedly used to launder dirty money.
“This excerpt does nothing but reveal the true motivation for the creation of companies linked to the couple: the concealment of illicit resources deriving from Rivaldo’s dishonest activity as Delegate of the Civil Police. Érika, a person who did not have the necessary predicates to act in this commercial activity served as an intermediary for such criminal intentions,” says the Federal Police.
From the conversations obtained by the PF it also emerges that servers, systems and structures of the Civil Police were used for “private purposes”.
Unlawful possession of a weapon
Another request is to investigate Robson councilor Calixto da Fonseca, known as Peixe, for illegal possession of a prohibited weapon. When Operation Murder Inc began in March, the PF confiscated a pistol from the Rio Civil Police Secretariat. The weapon had the acronym for the National Public Security Force engraved on the frame. The number has been deleted.
Source: Terra
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