The São Paulo Court of Justice condemned the family of the former mayor of Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo, Néfi Tales (1938-2003), to return property and real estate that, according to the State Public Prosecution Service, were bought with money diverted from the municipal administration.
The recovered assets will be destined to the municipal coffers. The equity includes a building, six farms, a site, a high standard apartment, a mansion and cars.
Nephi Tales did not finish the mandate. He took office in 1997, was removed from office the following year and was eventually revoked by the City Council. In his short time at City Hall, he employed son -in -law, a son and his wife in commissioned positions, according to the prosecution.
Continues after advertising
The case has been going on in court since 1998. The mayor died in 2003 and the misconduct action continued to be processed because relatives and former advisors also respond to the process. The estate was included in the action.
When he took over the city, Nephi was in debt. It responded to four execution processes, had a mortgaged house, owed taxes and passed checks without funds, according to the investigation.
The situation changed after it became mayor. He paid debts, increased the capital of his company, Consmac Indústria, Comércio e Construções Ltda, and bought properties paid in cash. An investigation heard broker narrated that he received his commission in a box of soap powder.
Continues after advertising
The breach of bank secrecy of the former mayor and his family showed that, eight months after the beginning of their term, they had already ease “extraordinary and scandalous fortune.” The process is moved by prosecutor Nadim Mazloum. The goods added, at the time, R $ 4.2 million. According to the prosecutor, “the origin (of the goods) was completely unhealthy and disproportionate to the incomes and financial situation (of Nephi Tales).”
The family claimed in the process that the damage to the treasury was not proven and that the mayor’s financial situation before taking office proves, “at most”, that he omitted income tax.
The São Paulo court decreed the loss of assets “unlawfully added to the heritage” of the family. For Judge Osvaldo Magalhães, rapporteur of the case in the Court of Justice, the origin of the money used in the purchase of property and real estate was not proven.
Continues after advertising
“The ministerial agency has been able to demonstrate, to satiety, the disproportion of the asset ease by the defendants in such a short time (more precisely, in the first eight months of the defendant’s term of the defendant Néfi Tales).
On the other hand, despite the wide probative instruction, in the case file, the defendants did not solve the lawfulness of the bid of the equity, ”concluded Judge Osvaldo Magalhães.
With the decision, the 4th Chamber of Public Law of the Court of Justice of São Paulo confirmed the sentence of first instance that had already decreed the loss of assets.
