Judge Rafael Estrela voted on Tuesday (4) for the rejection of the governor of, ().
Rapporteur of the action proposed by the Regional Electoral Attorney’s Office, the magistrate stated that the prosecution was unable to prove the allegations made about the expenses considered irregular. There are still six magistrates to vote for the case.
The Regional Electoral Prosecutor’s Office states that the electoral accounts of the plate did not prove the allocation of R $ 10 million from R $ 17.8 million spending from the Electoral Fund. denies any irregularity.
“If there has been hiring oranges, partners who have a family relationship with each other, not providing services, cold notes, ghost employees, there is no proof of the accusation regarding these facts. […] There is no room for presumptions. The poor application of public appeal demands evidence, which the prosecutor has not been disinholed, “Estrela said.
“Remaining considerable doubts that they could not be resolved given the absence of robust and sufficient evidence to prove the unlawfulness of resources for electoral purposes.”
The action was presented based on TRE’s own technical opinions, which declared the existence of irregularities in vehicle rental contracts.
According to the Attorney’s Office, eight contracted companies had no operational capacity and subcontracting services at lower prices than those paid by the governor’s campaign.
“Illicit spending for electoral purposes, materialized in the rendering of accounts presented by the represented, demonstrate complete disrespect for the electoral race, which translate into enough gravity to configure illicit resource spending with potentiality of claim and not as mere formal failures or Improbities of an accounting nature, “said regional electoral prosecutor Neide Cardoso.
Lawyer Eduardo Damian, who represents Castro, contested data used by the Attorney’s Office, pointing out what he considers errors of calculations and wrong interpretation of the information sent by the banks.
“The company shows that all the money received from the campaign was transferred to the people who worked on the streets, distributing leaflets, holding flags, participating in hiking. […] The declared spending, duly accounted for, are proven. All evidence produced in these records come from the defense. So much so that the final allegations of the prosecution are exactly the same as the initial petition, “he said.
The biggest suspicion falls on Cinqloq company, which received R $ 4.3 million from Castro’s campaign for labor outsourcing. According to the Electoral Public Prosecution Service, the financial movement of the firm has ties with two former secretaries of the governor: the brothers Rafael Thompson (government) and Mauro Faria (digital transformation).
The investigation pointed out that the company P5 Empreendimentos received R $ 2.5 million from Cinqloq during the campaign. The firm was owned by the two former secretaries and, during the election period, was under control of a political ally of Thompson.
Estrela questioned data indicated by the Attorney’s Office about the companies, according to which Cinqloq would have only received funds from the Castro campaign in 2022.
“There was a working capital in the grade account sufficient to fund transfers to third parties not linked to the campaign of those represented,” said the magistrate.
The action is the second of the Attorney’s Office to be analyzed by the TRE by the cassation of Castro and Pampolha.
Last year, the court denied, 4-3, the request linked to the case of the “secret payrolls” of CEPERJ (Rio de Janeiro State Research and Statistics Center) and UERJ (State University of Rio de Janeiro ).
The lawsuit was sent to (Superior Electoral Court) after appeal by the Public Prosecution Service. The case refers to the use of UERJ and CEPERJ to pay social project employees without the disclosure of their names.
Payments were made by bank orders issued on names of project employees and paid in the Borda Bradesco’s cash cash cash. The hires were only interrupted after a public civil action of the State Public Prosecution Service in August 2022.
