The Federal Anti-Mafia Prosecutor of Brasilia opened an investigation against the former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) and his wife, Michelle Firmofor the alleged crime of embezzlement that would have been committed with the smuggling of jewelry and diamonds from the Swiss brand Chopard valued at more than 3.6 million dollars sent by the Government of Saudi Arabia in 2021 in the suitcase of a former cabinet minister, the Brazilian press reported today.
The jewelry smuggling scandal would be delaying the return of Bolsonaro from the United Stateswhere he has been since December 30 with a tourist visa, which initially plans to return on March 29, when the president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is on an official tour China.
According to Folha de Sao Paulo, prosecutor Caio Vaez Días, a member of the Special Action Group to Fight Organized Crime (Gaeco), He was appointed as the investigator of the embezzlement complaint against the far-right ex-president.
Dias is one of the investigators of the coup attempt on January 8 perpetrated by thousands of followers of Bolsonaro in Brasilia that they assaulted the headquarters of the three powers and requested the intervention of the Army to overthrow Lula.
The request to open the investigation, accepted by the Federal Public Ministry of Brasiliawas carried out by the official deputy Luciene Cavalcanteof the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL).
Embezzlement is a crime that occurs when an official, by virtue of the position he occupies, diverts public assets for his own benefit or that of third parties, with penalties between 2 and 12 years in prison.
The prosecution’s investigation occurs after Senator Omar Azizof the right-wing Social Democratic Party (PSD) will announce that the upper house heritage commission will begin an investigation into whether the jewels are part of an alleged bribery following the privatization of the Landulpho Alves de Bahía refinery, from the state-owned Petrobras, acquired for half its market value by the Mubadala Capital fund, of the monarchy of United Arab Emirates.
The deputy’s complaint to the public prosecutor’s office Brasilia includes the former Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerquewho received the jewels from the Saudi monarchy in October 2021, and the former head of the tax and customs body Receita Federal Julio Gomes, accused of trying to pressure his subordinates at the request of President Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro, a former Army captain, admitted to CNN Brazil having taken for himself a gift from Saudi government to Brazil valued at 100 thousand dollarsa set of a watch, cufflinks and a gold bracelet from the Swiss brand Chopard: for this case the court of accounts forced the return of the jewels to the national patrimony in the coming days.
In October 2021, then Minister Albuquerque, an admiral, returned from an official event in Riyadh with an adviser, a sergeant, and disembarked at the airport in Guarulhos, in São Paulo.
There, a customs agent asked to check the sergeant’s backpack and inside there was, without officially declaring, a set of jewelry and diamonds from Chopard for women valued at 3.5 million dollars that was confiscated for lack of documentation.
“It’s for the first lady,” he said albuquerque by interceding with the customs prosecutor, seeking to pressure him to release the jewelry, according to security cameras that captured the sound of the scene.
However, albuquerque He was carrying another set, the one sent to Bolsonaro, in another suitcase, and he brought it into the country without declaring it. Bolsonaro took the gift for himself and not for the presidency of the Republic.
The truth is that the far-right ex-president He tried nine times sending trusted people to unlock the case of the jewels valued at 3.5 million dollars without success, thanks to the anti-smuggling action of the Federal Revenue agents.
The former first lady said she was unaware of the case, shifting the blame for the probable millionaire smuggling on Admiral Albuquerque.
Source: Ambito
