Brother of the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court), José Ticiano Dias Toffoli has faced problems with the Judiciary since leaving the administration of Marília, in , the city of which he was mayor for just under a year.
Elected by the PT, he was at the head of the government from March to December 2012 after the incumbent, whose deputy he was, resigned amid allegations of irregularities.
The most recent setback is from September last year, when judge Walmir dos Santos Cruz ordered Ticiano, Bulgareli, a former secretary from Marília and a company to return R$180,000 to public coffers for irregularly contracting asphalt resurfacing.
The court concluded that the service prices were overpriced. There is an appeal.
The Bulgareli defence of Bulgareli Sheet who prefers not to speak out. The lawyer representing Ticiano Toffoli declared that the case has not yet been closed and that the former mayor was acquitted of the other cases.
One of them involves sentencing the pair to five months in detention – a sentence changed to a fine – for using R$28 million in resources linked to health and education to pay general city hall expenses. The funds were stamped and could not be used for other purposes.
The former mayors admitted the practice and said in court that the relocation was the alternative to the financial collapse of the city hall they governed.
The first degree sentence, which spoke of “criminal continuity” given the finding that illegal transfers occurred from 2010 to 2012, was only reversed by the (Superior Court of Justice) on February 14 of last year.
For Minister Saldanha Palheiros, rapporteur of the appeal, the action of the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) did not prove the defendants’ intention to cause damage to the public treasury and the TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region) only presumed the intent of their conduct. He also said that the case was time-barred.
Eight days earlier, the minister had rejected a first appeal claiming that the TRF presented “the solution that best reflects the jurisprudential guidance of the Superior Court of Justice on the matter”.
The retreat from this decision responded to a request from Ticiano Toffoli’s defense presented a day earlier, on February 13.
The MPF tried to demand the return of R$28 million in a civil action. Without success.
Ticiano and Bulgareli were initially convicted, but the STJ ordered the Court to re-analyze the case after changes to the Administrative Improbity Law, which came into force in October 2021. A new trial ruled that the action was unfounded.
The buffer mandate of the STF minister’s brother was the target of criticism from the TCE-SP (São Paulo State Court of Auditors) in a decision that rejected the balance sheet for the 2012 financial year.
The decision cites R$112 million in deficits, R$14 million in negative financial results and was ratified by the Marília Chamber – the final say on the accounts belongs to the Legislature, under the terms of the Constitution.
Contacted this Friday morning (16), the STF advisory team did not comment until the publication of this text.
As shown by Sheettwo other brothers of the minister, José Carlos and José Eugênio Dias Toffoli, as well as cousin Mário Umberto Degani, were partners in an investment fund connected to the web used in fraud.
The connection is made through the Arleen fund, which held at least until May 2025 shares in Tayayá Administração e Participações, responsible for one that partly belonged to Toffoli’s family.
The fund also had a stake in DGEP Empreendimentos, a real estate developer in the same city in which the minister’s cousin was a partner.
Arleen is not the target of investigation, but was a shareholder in a fund that received investments from Maia 95, as part of the bank’s alleged web of fraud.
Toffoli, in turn, is the rapporteur of the Master case at the STF. He launched the investigation at the beginning of December on the grounds that one of those named in the investigation, , has jurisdiction as a prerogative of his role. The minister imposed secrecy on the case.
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