Targets of a Federal Police operation this Wednesday, former senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho, deputy Fernando Coelho Filho (União-PE) and former mayor of Petrolina Miguel Coelho are at the center of a transfer of R$22 million in parliamentary amendments that reveals how a web of political and family relationships can generate distortions in the allocation of Congressional resources.
Entitled Operation Vassalos, this morning’s action was authorized by Minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Police officers are carrying out 42 search and seizure warrants in Pernambuco, Bahia, São Paulo, Goiás and the Federal District.
According to the PF, “the investigation points to the existence of an organization made up of public and private agents suspected of embezzling public resources arising from parliamentary amendments, by directing bids to a company linked to the group, with subsequent use of the diverted amounts to pay undue advantages and conceal assets”.
The details of the investigation and the amendments that are under suspicion have not yet been revealed.
As O GLOBO showed in November 2025, at the end of September of that year, the city hall of Petrolina (PE), a city located 715 kilometers from Recife (PE), inaugurated the first stage of Orla 3. On the banks of the São Francisco River, the administration doubled avenues, implemented cycle paths and made lighting improvements, a set in part funded with R$ 22 million sent in 2021 by the then senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho, whose brother is the owner of land in the region of the project and negotiates compensation due to expropriation.
For the funds to reach the municipality’s coffers, then commanded by Miguel Coelho, one of Bezerra’s sons, an agreement had to be signed. The document was signed between the city hall and the São Francisco Valley Development Company (Codevasf), whose local head at the time advised Bezerra during Congress. With the money available, preparations began for the work, which passes through land belonging to a relative of the senator. With the revitalization inaugurated, Miguel Coelho returned to the scene, now out of city hall and active in real estate business in the region.
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See the path of the amendment
Fernando Bezerra Coelho indicated in 2021 the amendment of R$22 million for Petrolina, a city then commanded by one of his sons, Miguel Coelho.
The agreement for the transfer of resources was signed in 2021 between the city hall, with Miguel Coelho at the helm, and the superintendence of the Companhia de Desenvolvimento do Vale do São Francisco (Codevasf) in Petrolina, headed by a former parliamentary advisor to Bezerra.
The work had to pass through land owned by a company whose partner is Bezerra’s brother. Part of the area was expropriated and, according to Petrolina city hall, the amount of compensation is still under negotiation. Another section was kept under the firm’s domain.
With the prospect of revitalization of the region, the real estate market has moved. One of the projects near Orla 3 has the participation of a company owned by Miguel Coelho, who announced the condominium on social media two weeks after the inauguration of the project.
When contacted at the time, Miguel Coelho said via press office that he has dedicated himself “to business activity, especially in the real estate sector”, since leaving city hall in March 2022. He stated that “he does not participate in any real estate development in Orla 3” and that the building advertised is in Orla 2. The two sections are contiguous and are part of the same project to revitalize the region, with works that have been taking place since the 1990s. The condominium is approximately 200 meters from the formal start of Orla 3. Brokers who promote the apartments on social media highlight that they are “connected to urban expansion and the new Orla 3”.
The former mayor added that he signed the “exchange contract with the project” in 2023, after leaving the management of the municipality, and that he does not own the land.
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Codevasf said that the “responsibility for bidding, contracting and supervising the works, as well as for carrying out expropriation processes” lies with the municipality and highlighted that the work contributes to “improving urban mobility and the quality of life of the population” in Petrolina. When contacted, Fernando Bezerra did not respond.
Family land on the way
On December 28, 2021, the agreement was signed between the city hall and Codevasf. The transfer from the then senator covered 84% of the amount planned for the work, initially budgeted at 26 million. The execution of the first stage cost R$16 million. To make it viable, it was necessary to expropriate part of the land, owned by a company whose partner is Bezerra’s brother.
The legislation provides for the possibility of land being expropriated, based on the principles of public utility and social interest.
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When contacted, Petrolina city hall stated that the negotiation process with the owners is still ongoing and that, therefore, there has been no payment or other form of compensation.
“It is important to mention that in order to carry out the intervention it was essential to expropriate part of the land in question and that the entire process respected tax, urban and environmental legislation”, stated the municipality.
In a post on social media on September 30, five days after the inauguration of Orla, Bezerra celebrated the delivery of the work and highlighted the sending of funds:
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— The work doesn’t stop. We made the first resources possible, and federal deputy Fernando Filho complemented it. The first stage of Orla 3 marks a new vector of development for our city — said the former senator, referring to transfers made by another of his sons, deputy Fernando Coelho Filho (União-PE), who was contacted and did not respond.
— Historic day for Petrolina. A new vector of development, progress and growth. It was a project that we thought about way back, in 2021, even when I was mayor — added Miguel Coelho on social media on the day of the inauguration.
One of the examples of “development” is the warming of the surrounding area with real estate launches. At the beginning of the month, Miguel Coelho, mayor when the city received his father’s resources, posted on his Instagram profile the announcement of a high-end condominium, built near Orla 3. The two towers will have large apartments measuring 170 m² and penthouses measuring 343 m². The work has investment from Orla Empreendimentos Imobiliários SPE, a firm whose partners include a company he owns.
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— There is no way to talk about impersonality and morality, principles of public administration, when parliamentary amendments become family funds. It is difficult not to be suspicious of funds sent by deputies to mayors with the same surname to be executed by bodies controlled by close associates — assesses the Research and Advocacy manager at Transparency International Brazil, Guilherme France.
With 386 thousand inhabitants, Petrolina was the city in Pernambuco that had the most amendments paid between 2020 and 2025, with R$323 million per year, on average. The value exceeds that of Recife, which has triple the population, and that of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, a municipality in the Metropolitan Region of the capital that is also more populous than the electoral base of Bezerra and his children. A bridge connects Petrolina to Juazeiro, a Bahian municipality of similar size (237 thousand inhabitants), but with less influence in Congress: R$82 million in amendments were paid per year in the period, on average.
Expansion of amendments and blocking of the STF
In December 2022, by 6 votes to 5, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) declared the secret budget, the origin of the amendment for Petrolina, unconstitutional. The ministers justified that the mechanism violated the constitutional principles of transparency, impersonality, morality and publicity.
Since last year, Minister Flávio Dino, from the STF, has determined a series of changes in the control of parliamentary amendments. With the end of the secret budget, Congress tried to get around the decision by boosting other types of amendments, such as commission amendments.
Dino determined, for example, the requirement for the godparents to present the nominations and also the presentation, in the case of the Pix amendments, of an action plan for the investment of resources. In the last ten years, the value of amendments has increased dramatically. In 2015, in values adjusted by the IPCA, it was R$16 billion. This year, the resource foreseen in the Budget is R$51 billion.
Councilor in Petrolina, Gilmar Santos (PT) assesses that resources could be better used in the city if they had been directed to other areas.
— The outskirts are without basic sanitation and many other essential services. Orla 3 was only a priority for those who live in the desire to take personal advantage and economic speculation — he criticized.
