Cornered by an investigation into , the senator (-PI) has another important legal issue, still related to the times of .
Carf (Administrative Council for Tax Appeals) decided to maintain a fine and tax collection due to bribes that were allegedly received in a scheme at Petrobras and the group, in the last decade.
The senator denies the accusations and states that he will present appeals both to the council and to the common courts.
Ciro Nogueira, who has presided over the PP since 2013, was accused of on different occasions following investigations into Lava Jato and its developments. Among the suspicions were the receipt of money from construction companies and also from J&F, illegally.
In the criminal sphere, the defense managed to reject four complaints that had been presented at the (Federal Supreme Court) from 2016 to 2020.
In the administrative field, however, the parliamentarian’s financial transactions at that time were analyzed and concluded that he received amounts that had never been declared to the authorities. To do this, it was based on testimonies from whistleblowers, cross-referenced information and carried out due diligence.
illegally received R$1.4 million from the construction company UTC, which had business with Petrobras, and another R$5 million from J&F. The majority of this amount would have been delivered in cash.
The fine and tax due were estimated in 2018 at R$6.3 million.
The parliamentarian appealed and presented a defense that receives appeals against fines.
His defense disputed the accusations. He said that there was no evidence to corroborate the testimonies of the whistleblowers and that, even if an electoral donation had been received, the amounts would have gone to the party, not to him.
He also argued that the complaints were rejected in the criminal sphere and that the administrative process, therefore, should not continue.
“The content of the allegations has already been the subject of an investigation at the Federal Supreme Court, which archived all the accusations”, Ciro Nogueira told the reporter, through his advisor.
According to the procedural movement, the case went to trial at Carf on December 10, and the six councilors unanimously decided to maintain the penalties.
The ruling (summary of the decision in the trial) was published on May 4th.
The parliamentarian, however, had a partial victory on the occasion by managing to change the calculation of the fine in his favor, based on a law that was signed in 2023, after the process began. The updated amount to be charged is not included in public documents.
In a vote, the reporting counselor, Lílian Cláudia de Souza, said that the process was guided by “the entire body of evidence in the case, and not just the allegations”, mentioning “vehement, serious, precise and convergent” evidence.
He also rejected the nullity argument due to the outcome of the criminal proceedings,
citing “the independence between the criminal and administrative spheres”.
An ally of the presidential candidate (), Ciro Nogueira was once again the target of the 7th, when he was searched during Operation Compliance Zero, which is investigating the Master. The suspicion is that he received an allowance of R$500,000 from the banker. The fact that he presented a legislative proposal of interest to Master, expanding the coverage of the FGC (Credit Guarantee Fund), weighs against the senator from Piauí.
In Lava Jato and in the investigations into J&F, the parliamentarian was also the target of searches. In 2018, R$217 thousand in cash.
As it already had a special jurisdiction, the processes were not processed in Curitiba, but were conducted by the (Attorney General’s Office) and the STF.
On the 12th, the senator used his history of victories against Lava Jato to defend himself against the accusations regarding the Master case, remembering that he was the target of a police operation days before the 2018 election. “They spent days repeating articles that were endlessly reported in the press. The investigation was ongoing, confidentiality was broken, evidence was sought and the conclusion of the investigation was this: the PGR did not see enough elements to support the accusation”, he stated in a video on social media.
When analyzing the senator’s movements, the Revenue inspectorate stated that it found “equity confusion” between his firms and those of his relatives, such as his mother, Eliane, who is his deputy and took up a position at the time he was minister of . She was also fined more than R$1 million, in a parallel procedure still in progress.
In relation to J&F’s values, the auditors cited the involvement of a supermarket in Piauí. According to the investigation, J&F merchandise was purchased by the establishment in cash and the money was passed on by the establishment to a person indicated by the senator.
Ciro Nogueira has always denied all these accusations. J&F executives gave statements that supported the allegations against him, but the company later began requesting a review of the leniency agreement signed. Members of UTC also filed criminal complaints against Ciro Nogueira, and the IRS took advantage of this to file an administrative fine.
The Ministry of Finance, to which Carf is subordinate, informed that the Revenue’s originating unit is responsible for notifying the parties and, if no further appeals occur, starting the collection phase with updated value calculations.
