O Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was indicted by the Federal Police this Thursday for several crimes following a case of appropriation of million-dollar jewelry.
The news was reported by G1. Bolsonaro was indicted for embezzlement, criminal association and money laundering.
To the Brazilian portal, Bolsonaro’s defense attorney, Paulo Cunha Bueno, said that he would not comment at this time because he had not had access to the Federal Police document.
The investigation – which has also indicted 11 other people in the case – seeks to determine whether Bolsonaro and his former aides misappropriated millions of dollars in jewelry that were allegedly given as gifts when he was president of Brazil. The former president has always denied the accusations.
The investigation was opened last year and was communicated today to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) which will now request an opinion from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
The case became public after local media released information about jewelry sets, luxury watches and firearms that Bolsonaro received when he was head of state and kept for himself as a private collection when he left the government.
According to the report by the Federal Court of Auditors TCU obtained by the newspaper O Globo, “it was found that the items seized by the Federal Revenue [um conjunto de joias dado a ex-primeira dama Michele Bolsonaro] they are, in reality, public assets of the Union, even though they are pending due 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, by virtue of a precautionary measure adopted by that court, have characteristics that make them public assets (…) which is why their destination to the private documentary collection of the former President of the Republic, Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, must be reviewed”, added the control body.
The TCU asked Bolsonaro to hand over the gifts stored at the Caixa Económica Federal bank within 15 days.
Regarding a rifle and a pistol that the former president received from members of the Government of the United Arab Emirates, the TCU report proposes that the weapons be handed over by the Federal Police to the Presidency.
The TCU auditors contradicted the version presented by Bolsonaro’s defense, which claimed that the jewelry, weapons and luxury items were highly personal items and pointed out that “the irregularity, in fact, consisted of the diversion of assets that should have been included in the Union’s assets.”
This is the second of three investigations with Bolsonaro as one of the central targets, and which should end by July, according to the Brazilian police authority.
The former President is also being investigated for alleged involvement in an attempted coup d’état and in March he was named a defendant by the Federal Police in an investigation into vaccination certificate fraud during the Covid-19 pandemic.
[Notícia atualizada às 23h21]
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2592751/bolsonaro-indiciado-por-varios-crimes-entre-eles-associacao-criminosa
