The top brass is trying to name a delegate to command the Coaf (Financial Activities Control Council) after approval of the nominee (), , for the presidency from 2025 onwards.
The attempt to appoint the new head of Coaf, which is administratively linked to the BC, comes after a crisis between the PF and the financial intelligence body in the first round of municipal elections.
The general director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, even criticized the body and stated that Coaf failed to report R$50 million in transactions suspected of being related to vote buying.
The PF’s main candidate for the Coaf vacancy is delegate Ricardo Saadi, director of Combating Organized Crime and Corruption.
Saadi commanded the PF Superintendence in Rio from April 2018 to August 2019. He was dismissed amid suspicions of interference by () in the corporation.
At the time, Bolsonaro alleged “productivity problems” in the Saadi administration to replace him. In April 2020, the then Minister of Justice, , said that the president exerted pressure to dismiss the delegate.
Saadi is a specialist in money laundering and headed the DRCI, a department of the Ministry of Justice responsible for asset recovery and international legal cooperation, in the government of (PT).
The crisis between the PF and Coaf has its origins in changes in the council’s intelligence sector that resulted in the departure of police officers from the agency.
The raids were exposed after the first round of elections, but the PF’s complaints with Coaf’s intelligence began in 2023, increased in the first months of this year and culminated in the change of intelligence directors.
The height of tension was the statement by the director of the PF, Andrei Rodrigues, to the Panel column, from Sheetafter the first round, when he stated that the withdrawals were suspected of being used in campaigns.
Coaf said, in a statement, that it worked in an integrated manner with the (Superior Electoral Court) to identify irregular financial movements.
Police interviewed by Sheet associated failures with the alleged dismantling of the Coaf sector, which resulted in the departure of federal police officers and a coordinator of special operations, an area subordinate to the intelligence directorate and responsible for more complex cases — such as those involving criminal organizations linked to trafficking, corruption and laundering of money through bookmakers and cryptocurrencies.
Until July, the head of the sector was José Carlos Coelho, a career employee at Banco de Brasil. Alongside two federal police officers, the technician had been in charge of the special operations sector for more than five years.
His immediate superior, with whom the relationship began to sour at the end of 2023, was the intelligence director, Ana Amélia Olczewski, a Revenue auditor on loan to Coaf.
According to police officers, the main reason for the disagreement between the two was the director’s criticism of the operating model of Coelho’s team — which, in turn, was well regarded by federal police officers and members of the Public Ministry.
After the clash with the employee, Ana Amélia asked to leave the agency. The current leadership of the PF then approved the name of delegate Silvia Amélia de Fonseca, chosen by the director of Coaf, Ricardo Liao. She was appointed on May 9.
The approval for the name was conditional, according to police officers, on Coelho and his team remaining in coordination, as well as strengthening the sector to deal with the increase in ongoing cases in the PF and the arrival of the election period.
Coelho, however, was fired in July and, soon after, other federal police officers who worked in the management asked to leave.
The PF leadership entered the field and asked Silvia Amélia to leave, just two months after taking office. She left, but her husband came in her place, who was already a Coaf employee.
In a note sent to SheetCoaf stated, regarding criticism from police officers related to the dismantling of the intelligence sector, that it would not comment.
“Nor is it up to Coaf to publicly share value judgments or even merit assessments about how or when authorities receive their RIFs [Relatórios de Inteligência Financeira] use or fail to use your information in the autonomous performance of their distinct and complementary institutional roles”, he said.
