Pen drive with images and reports collected in the United States will support investigation; case awaits analysis by the PGR for possible reporting
The (Federal Police) sent to the (Supreme Federal Court) on Thursday (9.Jan.2025) a pen drive with images and statements collected in the United States in the process that investigates the illegal sale abroad of jewelry received from Saudi Arabia by the management of the former president (PL).
“I forward to your Excellency the documents listed below, on attached digital media (pen drive)”says the letter from the Coordination of Investigations and Counterintelligence Operations. Deputy Fábio Shor is in charge of at least 3 STF investigations involving the former president, including the jewelry investigation.
According to the document, 5 pieces of evidence were sent to Minister Alexandre de Moraes. They are:
- Information from the Judicial Police nº 2615442/2024;
- Documents and statements collected in the context of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (Mutual Legal Assistance Treatiesin English), signed with the DOJ (United States Department of Justice, in Portuguese);
- Report nº 2578/2023;
- Report nº 1795/2023; and
- Report nº 543/2024.
A cooperation agreement was in 2023 to locate the jewelry, based on the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty –an international pact for legal assistance or cooperation in criminal matters.
As found out by the Poder360the PF and the FBI planned from sale to repurchase in the United States of the parts. With the partnership, FBI and PF agents investigate:
- breaches of banking secrecy of those involved;
- data collection on properties;
- due diligence at jewelry stores in Florida, New York and Pennsylvania; and
- collecting statements from witnesses and suspects, such as shopkeepers.
The PF (Federal Police) report, released in July 2024, led to the indictment of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and 11 other allies involved in the jewelry case.
The case awaits analysis by the PGR (Attorney General’s Office) for possible prosecution. The materials sent to the Court can support a possible complaint that, if the STF accepts, would make him a defendant to be tried by the ministers.
UNDERSTAND
In 2024, the PF released one that shows an alleged scheme to sell official gifts received by Bolsonaro. The former aide-de-camp of the then President of the Republic, Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, would have carried out the negotiation.
On April 4, 2023, the complete jewelry kit will be sent to Caixa Econômica Federal.
Kit Rosé
In the report, the PF mentions a “Kit Rosé”, set of men’s items from the Chopard brand with a pen, a ring, a pair of cufflinks, a masbah (object similar to a rosary) and a clock. The items were received by the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, after a trip to Saudi Arabia, in October 2021.
The kit was removed from Brazil at the end of December via the Presidency of the Republic plane, and put up for sale, in an auction procedure on February 8, 2023 in the United States. The jewelry, however, was not sold.
After the failed sale attempt and with the publication in the press of the existence of the aforementioned jewels, Mauro Cid and Bolsonaro’s former advisor Osmar Crivelatti organized a “rescue operation” of the goods.
With the decision of the TCU (Federal Audit Court) for the kit to be returned to the Brazilian State, those investigated returned the items on March 24, 2023 at the Caixa Econômica Federal branch, in Brasília.
White Gold Kit
The investigators managed to complete the sale of the items in the so-called “White Gold Kit”consisting of a ring, cufflinks, a masbah (an object similar to a rosary) and a white gold Rolex watch. Bolsonaro was presented with the luxury items during his official visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2019.
According to the PF, the Rolex watch would have been sold for US$68,000 in the US. After the sale was made, the former orderly deposited an amount of the same value into the account of his father, Mauro Cesar Lourena Cid, in August last year.
According to the PF, the watch was taken from Brazil illegally using a FAB (Brazilian Air Force) aircraft, used on a trip by the presidential delegation to the United States, in June 2022.
The PF reported that, after showing that the former president had a jewelry kit, people linked to Bolsonaro carried out an operation on March 8, 2023 to rescue the pieces, which were in North American commercial establishments.
The idea was to repurchase the items so that they could be returned to the Brazilian government, in order to comply with a TCU decision.
The operation took place in two stages, according to the PF:
- Rolex: The watch was recovered on March 14, 2023 by Wassef. The item returned to Brazil on March 29, 2023. On April 2 of that year, the Bolsonaro clan lawyer passed the watch to Mauro Cid, who was in São Paulo. The former aide-de-camp returned to Brasília on the same day and handed the Rolex to Crivelatti;
- other jewelry: the items were recovered by Mauro Cid on March 27, 2023 during a trip to Miami. Afterwards, the former aide-de-camp immediately returned to Brazil, arriving in Brasília on the morning of March 28.
