The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), voted on Friday (27) for the reception of the complaint of (Attorney General’s Office) against involving parliamentary amendments.
The trial occurs in and should end on March 5. Zanin is the rapporteur of the process; Ministers Flávio Dino, Alexandre de Moraes, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia remains to be voted.
The reported federal deputies are Josimar Maranhãozinho (-ma), Bosco Costa (PL-SE) and Pastor Gil (PL-MA). According to PGR, the trio requested “consciously and voluntary” the payment of bribes by José Eudes Sampaio Nunes, former mayor of São José do Ribamar.
The complaint was also received in relation to five others pointed out as operators of the scheme.
The case occurred in 2020. PGR says deputies requested $ 1.6 million as “counterpart to the allocation of federal public resources”. The amount corresponds to 25% of the total of amendments sent by the three parliamentarians to the municipality of São José do Ribamar: R $ 6.6 million.
“Josimar Maranhãozinho, besides being the author of one of the amendments, coordinated the allocation of the resources of the other two, as revealed by the numerous dialogues held by Pastor Gil and João Bosco Costa, through the WhatsApp messaging app,” says the Attorney.
According to the investigation, the deputies decided to send parliamentary amendments to São José do Ribamar already with the objective of extorting the city hall. The loan shark Josival Cavalcanti da Silva, known as Pacovan, was in charge of the approaches, according to the accusation.
According to PGR, Pacovan even went to the mayor’s house and sending a note to the caretaker in which his name and telephone number was written. José Eudes Nunes, however, refused to pay the bribe.
With the frustrated attempts of the loan shark, deputies Josimar Maranhãozinho and Pastor Gil “began to act personally to convince the mayor,” according to the accusation. The Attorney’s Office includes a series of messages from parliamentarians to José Eudes, in which they try to schedule meetings to “solve” the problem.
José Eudes reported to the police about the intimidation and requests for bribes in 2020. For the PGR, the mayor’s negative to divert resources from the amendments should not rid the accused of the crimes committed.
“The factual picture, as presented, leaves no doubt that the acts they committed, in the various ways in which the participation of each one took place, configures the crime of passive,” concluded the Attorney.
The PGR also presents in the complaint evidence that the same group of parliamentarians and operators acted in the same way to corrupt other municipalities Maranhão.
In these other cases, however, the Attorney’s Office does not deepen the investigation and only shows WhatsApp conversations, spreadsheets and bank transfer records among the accused – to present the context about the suspicions.
Considering the case of São José do Ribamar and suspected amendments in other municipalities, the PGR stated that “the accused have formed criminal organization, led by Josimar Maranhãozinho, aimed at improper marketing of parliamentary amendments”.
