Action is part of Gaeco’s Operation Munditia, which investigates the organization’s presence in municipal administrations in the State
The Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP) filed a complaint against ten individuals, including former councilor Flávio Batista de Souza (Podemos), for alleged fraud in a tender worth R$5.5 million. This action is part of Operation Munditia, which investigates the presence of the First Command of the Capital () in municipal administrations in the state. It is the fifth complaint filed by the Special Action Group for the Repression of Organized Crime (Gaeco), an arm of the Public Ministry, in the wake of Operation Munditia, which revealed PCC infiltrators in several city halls in São Paulo. The Operation Munditia investigation showed how the faction bribed public agents to win bids and used the contracts to launder money from drug trafficking.
The new complaint revolves around a tender opened in 2023 for the contracting of control and inspection services for entrances and buildings in Ferraz de Vasconcelos. The winning company was N Fernandes Prestação de Serviços. In May last year, the contract was annulled by the São Paulo Court, but the city council transferred R$781,000 to the company, an amount that the Public Ministry argues should be returned to the public coffers.
“It is evident that the corruption of a public inspection and control contract, with a substantial value submitted to the interests and commands of the First Command of the Capital, is one of the most serious breaches of democratic and republican values”, says an excerpt from the complaint signed by prosecutors Flávia Flores Rigolo, Yuri Fisberg, Daniel Gruenwald Lepine and Carolina Augusto Juliotti.
Conversations obtained by Gaeco prosecutors show that Antônio Carlos de Morais, identified in the investigations as a kind of front man for the PCC scheme in city halls, interfered in the preparation of the notice and even wrote official responses to questions presented by companies interested in the auction.
“The response, obviously, should be prepared by the technical staff of the City Hall, however, in this tender, the bidder himself was designated to provide clarifications to any interested bidders”, points out the MP.
Investigators also found conversations between lawyer Viviani de Brito Souza, former Secretary of Administration of Ferraz de Vasconcelos, dismissed in August last year amid the investigations, and Antônio. In one of the conversations, she forwards a list of four companies and asks: “Which is the best?” According to the Public Ministry, the then secretary wanted to know which company she should choose to win a bid.
The MP asks that Fernando Cordeiro de Oliveira, director of the tenders and contracts department at Ferraz de Vasconcelos city hall, and Thainá de Paula Fernandes Figueira, auctioneer, be removed from their duties. The agency also requested the preventive arrests of Vagner, Márcio and Antônio.
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*Report produced with the help of AI and Estadão Conteúdo
Published by Fernando Dias
