Businessman Kalil Bittar, former partner of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as “Lulinha”, and one of the targets of the Federal Police (PF) operation that targets overpricing in contracts from São Paulo city councils for the acquisition of school supplies, claims, according to his defense, that he has been living in Portugal for two years and that he received money from the main figure in the scheme, André Mariano, in return for technology services, and not to act as a lobbyist for Life.
This Thursday, agents carried out search and seizure warrants at an address related to him in a complex in Lago Sul, in Brasília (DF), but did not find him. The court also authorized the breaking of Kalil’s tax, banking and telephone secrecy between January 2021 and August 2025, as well as the seizure of his passport. The operation, in partnership with the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), ended with five people arrested and more than 50 actions in three states.
Both Kalil and Carla Ariane Trindade, former daughter-in-law of President Lula (PT), married for 19 years to Marcos Cláudio Lula da Silva, are identified by the police as Mariano’s partners in the scheme. Their role would be to maintain influence in the release of funds from the Ministry of Education that finance the acquisition of books and robotics kits by the city halls of cities such as Sumaré, Limeira and Hortolândia. These contracts would be signed with Life at abusive prices, up to 35 times above the market value, based on fraud and with the connivance of municipal employees.
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Kalil’s defense states that he has been friends with Carla for more than 30 years, but “never did the so-called business prospecting, especially in areas of the public sector” for Life. The term appears in the search warrant, which is confidential, obtained by GLOBO. “Mr Kalil, more than two years ago, transferred his residence to Portugal, from where he carries out his professional activities, all of them exclusively related to the private sector”, states a note sent by lawyer Roberto Bertholdo.
The PF reports that the first contact between Mariano and Kalil would have occurred in December 2021, when a notice was sent from Hortolândia city hall before its official publication.
One of the seized messages, according to the investigation, shows the owner of Life betting on the greater influence of Lulinha’s former partner in ministries of the current government and in “PT states”. Between 2022 and 2024, Mariano made bank transfers to Kalil in the order of R$150,000, including accounts belonging to the businessman’s wife. He would also have donated a BMW 540I vehicle, owned by Life. There was an attempt to transfer the car to Kalil’s company, which ended up not happening.
Bertholdo was not yet able to specify the exact amount received by Kalil, but claims that “the funds received were due to the provision of services related to the development of technology products, with no action related to commercial and/or mercantile activities of the company under investigation”.
As for the supposedly donated vehicle, Kalil’s defense maintains that he borrowed the car “on a contingency basis” and that other people also used it in the meantime. “At a certain point, there was an attempt to acquire the vehicle by Mr. Kalil, a negotiation that ended up not materializing due to the parties not agreeing on the value and method of payment.”
Kalil’s so-called influence with the Lula government would have also appeared in a delegation from the Brazilian government to China, says the PF. In June 2024, he was at a business meeting of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex Brasil), amid vice-president Geraldo Alckmin’s (PSB) trip to the Asian country.
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The businessman’s defense states that he was not part of the federal government’s delegation and that, “in his current professional life, Mr. Kalil has gone to China on some occasions to discuss matters related to the areas of technology and communication”. “In none of his visits to China did Mr. Kalil deal with any matter that concerns activities related to the Brazilian public sector,” he declared in a statement.
O GLOBO seeks contact with the defense of André Mariano and Carla Trindade.
Agendas no MEC
Carla would have been introduced to the alleged leader of the criminal organization by Kalil and the secretary of education of Hortolândia, Fernando Moraes, arrested preventively this Thursday. Mariano’s digital files, which use code names such as “Paulínia’s friend”, in reference to the city of São Paulo, and “daughter-in-law”, indicate that she would be responsible for resolving disputes in Brasília. The bribe, in turn, was treated as “coffee” and came from cash withdrawals from money changers, who maintained shell companies for money laundering.
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“At least twice, Carla would have gone to Brasília with tickets paid for by André Mariano”, points out an excerpt from the decision that authorized the PF operation. “The dynamics of the appointments, often corroborated by other files, demonstrate that Carla defends Mariano’s private interests with public bodies, mainly in the search for resources and contracts.”
The point of contact in Brasília would be the National Education Development Fund (FNDE), which releases resources for city halls to finance the acquisition of products and improvements in municipalities. Despite this, the PF operation request does not list any member of the federal government among those being investigated, implying that, at least for now, the public agents involved in the scheme work in lower courts.
Mariano had at least two meetings with the current president of the FNDE, Fernanda Pacobahyba. In December 2023, the owner of Life was accompanied by the education secretary of Hortolândia. The other meeting, in May 2024, which specifically dealt with “textbooks, material for students and libraries”, was attended by two other representatives from companies in the educational sector.
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History
Kalil was a partner of Fábio Luís, known as Lulinha, at Gamecorp, a company producing electronic game content that became known for an investigation, later archived, into suspicious contributions from Oi/Telemar. He is the brother of Fernando Bittar, who was listed as the owner of the Atibaia site in public deeds.
Kalil and Fernando are the sons of the former mayor of Campinas, Jacó Bittar, one of the founders of the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and the PT. In 2016, the businessman appeared in Lava Jato taps used as proof that the site was, in fact, owned by the president and his late wife, Marisa Letícia.
Carla was married to Marcos Cláudio, son of Marisa Letícia adopted by Lula, between 1991 and 2010. The divorced couple gave a grandson to the president, Thiago Trindade, who is a PT member. According to a record published by the newspaper “O Estado de S. Paulo”, the president’s stepson was at his ex-wife’s house at the time of the operation.
