The Public Ministry of Maranhão (MPMA) names the mayor of Turilândia, Paulo Curió (União Brasil), as the leader and organizer of a scheme that would have diverted R$56 million from the public coffers of the municipality, located in the interior of Maranhão.
The scheme consisted of the issuance and sale of cold invoices by companies that had participated in and won supposedly simulated bids. These companies, according to the prosecutor’s office, kept 10% to 18% of the amounts, while Curió and his family ended up appropriating up to 90% of the amount.
Investigations indicate that the head of the municipal Executive used part of the money to pay for family expenses, such as the college tuition of the first lady, Eva Dantas, also denounced by the Public Ministry. According to the prosecutor’s office, she exercised control over the municipality’s accounts and carried out financial transactions even without holding a public position.
Opportunity with security!
The report attempts to contact the defenses of the mayor, his wife and other defendants, who total 10 people. The space remains open.
Who is Paulo Curió
José Paulo Dantas Silva, known as Paulo Curió, is a businessman and mayor of Turilândia. He is currently serving his second consecutive term.
In 2016, at the age of 38, he tried for the first time to head the municipal Executive, when he contested the election for the then Republic Party (PR), now the Liberal Party (PL). At the time, he was not elected. In 2020, he ran again, for PTB, and won; in 2024, he was re-elected.
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Born in São Luís, capital of the State, Curió declared to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) R$ 1 million in assets, an amount corresponding to his residence in Turilândia. As a businessman, he works in the fields of agribusiness, civil construction and communication.
According to his TSE record, he does not have completed higher education. He is married to Eva Dantas, also accused by the Public Ministry.
Curió is also the brother of Marcel Curió, who was mayor of the municipality of Governador Nunes Freire, also in the interior of Maranhão, between 2013 and 2016.
In the last year of his term, Marcel was removed from office at the request of the Public Ministry of Maranhão. At the time, the prosecutor’s office pointed out that he was delaying paying employees and had abandoned management of the city after losing the elections that year, when he ran for re-election.
The MPMA ordered the then mayor, Paulo Curió’s brother, to stay at least 500 meters away from the city hall, under penalty of arrest in the act, for the crime of disobedience.
Complaint
Last Monday, the 19th, the Public Ministry of Maranhão filed a complaint against 10 people who were believed to be involved in the criminal organization that, according to the agency, caused losses of more than R$56 million to the coffers of the municipality of Turilândia. Among those charged is Mayor Paulo Curió, described by prosecutors as “the leader of the corruption scheme”. The complaint was signed by the Attorney General of Justice, Danilo de Castro.
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In addition to Curió, Eva Maria Oliveira Cutrim Dantas (wife of the mayor), Tânya Karla Cardoso Mendes Mendonça (vice-mayor), Janaína Soares Lima (former vice-mayor of Turilândia), Domingos Sávio Fonseca Silva (father of Paulo Curió), Marcel Everton Dantas Filho and Taily de Jesus Everton Silva Amorim (brothers of the mayor), José Paulo Dantas Filho (uncle), Ritalice Souza were also accused. Abreu Dantas and Jander Silvério Amorim Pereira (brothers-in-law).
The group was arrested as part of Operation Tântalo II, launched on December 22 by the Special Group to Combat Criminal Organizations (Gaeco) of the Public Ministry of Maranhão. According to the prosecutor’s office, they would form part of the “political and family core of the organization”.
According to the MPMA, investigations identified a corruption scheme based on the “sale” of invoices by companies that won simulated tenders. “The estimated damage to the treasury is R$56,328,937.59, an amount determined from contracts signed fraudulently since 2021,” states the complaint.
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Also according to the Public Ministry, the mayor and people close to him received between 82% and 90% of the amounts paid by the city of Turilândia, while the businessmen kept the residual portion, between 10% and 18%.
The resources, according to the accusation, were used to cover personal expenses for Paulo Curió and his family, such as his wife’s medical school, in addition to the acquisition of real estate, a strategy that would have been used to launder money.
“Within the political core, the participation of the mayor’s direct family members proved to be a central element for the stability, internal cohesion and asset shielding of the criminal organization, functioning as a true circle of trust intended for the concealment, dissimulation and enjoyment of illicit values”, states the Attorney General of Justice in the complaint.
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The Public Ministry of Maranhão requested the conviction of those involved for crimes such as criminal organization, embezzlement, fraud in bidding procedures, passive corruption and money laundering.
It was also requested the decree of the loss of assets, rights and values that would have been acquired through fraud, in addition to the sentence of full reimbursement of the embezzled amount. “The complaint also requires the refund of R$ 56,328,937.59, adjusted monetarily and plus legal interest”, says the text.
