Bolsonaro is said to have kept luxury jewellery and watches that he received from Arab governments while he was head of state. Police accuse him of money laundering and appropriation of public property.
On Thursday, Brazil’s Federal Police charged former President Jair Bolsonaro in the case in which he is being investigated for allegedly trying to embezzle jewelry that was given to him by Arab governments when he was still in power.
After completing the investigation, the police filed charges against eleven people, including Jair Bolsonaro, for the crimes of appropriation of public property, money laundering and criminal association.
The investigation was opened last year and was reported this Thursday to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which now will ask for opinion to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
The case became public after local media reported it. disseminate information about jewelry setsluxury watches and firearms that Bolsonaro received when he was head of state and Keep it to yourself as a private collection upon leaving the Government.
According to the report of the Federal Court of Accounts of the TCU obtained by the newspaper O Globo, “it was found that the assets seized by the Federal Treasury [um conjunto de joias dado a ex-primeira dama Michele Bolsonaro] They are, in fact, public assets of the Union, although they are pending their proper incorporation by the Presidency of the Republic.”
It was found that the assets handed over by the former President of the Republic to Caixa Económica Federal, pursuant to a precautionary measure adopted by that court, They have characteristics that make them public goods. (…) therefore its allocation to the private documentary fund of the former President of the Republic, Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, must be reviewed,” the watchdog added.
The TCU asked Bolsonaro deliver the saved gifts in Caixa Económica Federal within 15 days.
Regarding a rifle and a pistol that the former President received from members of the United Arab Emirates government, the TCU report proposes that the weapons be delivered by the Federal Police to the President.
The TCU auditors contradicted the version presented by Bolsonaro’s defense, which claimed that the jewelry, weapons and luxury items were very personal items and pointed out that “the irregularity, in fact, materializes in the diversion of assets that should become part of the assets of the Union“.
This is the second of three investigations targeting Bolsonaro, which is expected to end in July, according to Brazilian police authorities.
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The former president is also investigated for an alleged participation in an attempted coup d’état and in March he was charged by the Federal Police in an investigation into vaccination certificate fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Observadora
