Zema Financeira, in which the governor of Minas Gerais, (Novo), has a minority shareholding, was condemned by the Court of Justice of Minas Gerais for an irregular loan in the name of an elderly woman.
The loans granted by the company were the basis of the request to summon the governor to testify at the (Mixed Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) of the (National Social Security Institute).
The request, presented by federal deputy Rogério Correia (PT-MG) was approved by the members. There is still no date for Zema’s testimony.
When contacted, the Government of Minas did not comment. The governor told the CPI, in a note, that he left management of the company after winning the election in 2018 and that “nothing can clarify the institution’s role in offering financial products to retirees and pensioners, including payroll loans”.
The bylaws of Zema Financeira show that the governor has a 16.41% shareholding in the finance company, which corresponds to R$16.8 million of the subscribed share capital.
The company’s controller is his father, Ricardo Zema, with 51% of the share capital. The other shareholders are Romero and Luciana, the governor’s brothers. Data collected by the Metrópoles portal under the Access to Information Law (LAI) indicates that the finance company earned R$200 million in the last five years.
The TJ-MG ruling, from September last year, considered null and void a loan taken out in the name of a retired woman at the finance company in February 2023 in the amount of R$1,586.23.
The contract provided for discounts in 84 installments of R$41.57 each in the monthly retirement of the elderly woman, a resident of the rural area of Ibitiúra de Minas, in the south of the state.
The decision of the three judges of the 17th Civil Chamber of the Court of Justice considered that there was bad faith on the part of the finance company in taking out the loan.
Therefore, the ruling determined the end of the discounts, the double refund of the amounts withdrawn and the payment of R$20,000 to the retiree in compensation for extra-patrimonial damages.
The finance company’s lawyer told the column that he could not comment on the case due to a confidentiality agreement. He stated in the case file that the hiring was valid, formalized by digital signature and recognized in a video recorded with the retiree herself.
The second instance decision overturned the Andradas district ruling, which had considered the discount lawful because the loan amount had been released into the retiree’s account and because the defense had not been able to prove that she was illiterate.
The judges, however, considered that the person who should prove that the loan was legal was the finance company, which would not have happened as it had not been formalized in writing.
The action’s rapporteur, Roberto Soares De Vasconcellos Paes, said that the retired woman is senile, deserves protection under the statute of elderly people, and that the money retained by the finance company is of a food nature.
He stated in the decision that Zema did not include any element that was evidence of the retiree’s valid expression of her desire for the loan.
“In situations like the one faced now, in the absence of proof of the existence of the contract, it is clear that the postulated procedure was notoriously cunning and imbued with bad faith, without observing ordinary precautions”, stated the magistrate in the decision.
He ordered that the amount of R$ 1,586.23 that entered the elderly woman’s account be deducted from the amount to be paid by the finance company. The retiree’s lawyer told the column that the finance company has already deposited R$29,769.28 to comply with the decision.
The elderly woman’s defense also disputes another loan that would have been taken out in her name from the finance company Zema also in 2023, in the amount of R$1,034.
A first instance decision, from April this year, also considered the contract null and void, but did not identify Zema’s bad faith and ordered it to pay compensation of R$10,000. The company appealed.
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