Appeal involves retired counselor with R$42,500 per month; MPF accuses defendants of corruption and criminal organization
The Special Court decides this Monday (May 11, 2026) that the criminal case against Aloysio Neves Guedes, retired counselor of the Court of Auditors of the State of Rio de Janeiro, is maintained in the STJ, accused by the Federal Public Ministry of participating in a bribery scheme in public contracts in the State.
Aloysio retired compulsorily in February 2022 and receives R$42,500 monthly, according to an act published in the Official Gazette. His defense asks that the case be sent to the first instance, on the grounds that his retirement removed the STJ’s jurisdiction to judge him.
The rapporteur, minister, voted to maintain the criminal action in the STJ. He said that the facts attributed to the defendants are connected, the investigation is advanced and the division of the process could harm the analysis of the evidence and produce contradictory decisions. Read (PDF — 100 kB).
In his vote, Gallotti stated that the crimes attributed to the defendants have a subjective and evidentiary connection. In practical terms, the minister maintains that evidence about one accused can also influence the analysis of the conduct of others.
The rapporteur also said that the criminal action is at an advanced stage. According to the vote, all the witnesses indicated by the parties have already been heard, leaving only the interrogations of the accused.
For Gallotti, dividing the process at this time could harm the “joint search for truth” and increase the risk of contradictory decisions between defendants. Therefore, she defended that the case remains concentrated in the STJ.
SCHEME FROM 1999 TO 2016
According to the MPF, TCE-RJ advisors had structured, from mid-1999 to December 2016, a scheme for requesting and receiving undue advantages paid by interested parties in processes analyzed by the Court of Auditors.
The complaint states that the payments were linked to public contracts in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The STJ, upon receiving the complaint in 2019, cited as an example an “allowance” of R$70,000 paid to each counselor by the Federation of Passenger Transport Companies of the State of Rio de Janeiro from May 2015 to March 2016. The amount would exceed R$3.8 million.
The complaint also mentions payments linked to contracts from the Rio Public Works Department, with values equivalent to 1% of works contracts above R$5 million, in addition to works such as PAC Favelas, Maracanã and Arco Metropolitano.
PF LAUNCHED OPERATIONS
The criminal action against the TCE-RJ counselors originates from the operations Quinto do Ouro e Out of controldevelopments in Rio that uncovered suspicions of corruption in the Rio de Janeiro Court of Auditors.
Quinto do Ouro was launched in March 2017 and targeted the TCE-RJ summit. At the time, Aloysio Neves Guedes, Domingos Inácio Brazão, José Gomes Graciosa, José Maurício de Lima Nolasco and Marco Antônio Barbosa de Alencar were temporarily arrested. All were later denounced by the MPF and became defendants in the criminal action judged by the STJ.
The investigation indicated that advisors had received bribes to turn a “blind eye” to irregularities in contracts and works by the Rio government. According to the STJ, the MPF stated that the payments were related to embezzlements carried out by a group led by former governor Sérgio Cabral.
A Out of control appears as one of the fronts that preceded the complaint. The operation investigated crimes of passive corruption and money laundering attributed to the former president of TCE-RJ Jonas Lopes de Carvalho Júnior. Jonas signed a collaboration agreement and his statements helped to support the accusation against the other counselors.
DEFENSE REQUESTS 1ST INSTANCE
The appeal at trial was presented by the defense of Aloysio Neves Guedes. The lawyers claim that, as he compulsorily retired from his position as a Court advisor in February 2022, the STJ is no longer competent to try him criminally.
Retirement had already been the subject of dispute before this. In 2021, Aloysio tried to voluntarily retire, but the process was blocked by the STJ. The defense asks that Aloysio’s case be sent to the first instance. The argument is that the prerogative jurisdiction is linked to the exercise of the position and, therefore, should not be maintained after retirement.
The request, however, does not involve the departure of all defendants from the STJ. The appeal deals with Aloysio’s situation. The other denounced counselors continue to be named in the process as having jurisdiction in the Court.
