The (Federal Audit Court) filed a request from the senator (-RJ) to investigate the relations between the president (PT) and the Ministry of Education.
The TCU ministers say in the piece that Flávio did not present evidence. The representation asked to investigate the destination of federal funds sent to the company Life Tecnologia Educacional, where Carla Ariane Trindade, ex-wife of Marcos Cláudio Lula da Silva, Lula’s eldest son with former first lady Marisa Letícia (1950-2017), worked.
The complaint cited an investigation by the Federal Police into alleged deviations in the folder. According to the PF, Carla would be a lobbyist for Life at the Ministry of Education.
TCU ministers claim that the senator’s request is based only on press reports. Because of this, the court rejected the opening of proceedings on the case in a ruling published on May 26. The information was made public this Sunday (7) in a report by Veja magazine confirmed by UOL.
“The initial piece does not present sufficient minimum evidence of irregularity or illegality, as it is essentially based on journalistic materials, unaccompanied by documents capable of individualizing facts, identifying bidding procedures or specific contracts and delimiting possible responsibilities”, says an excerpt from the ruling.
The Court of Auditors’ decision does not interfere with the . Investigators continue to investigate whether the president’s former daughter-in-law used Lula’s name to obtain meetings in Brasília and release funds for the company.
Carla Ariane’s lawyers are not commenting. Since the first phases of Operation Coffee Break, launched at the end of last year, the defense has denied the accusations, without going into details.
The Ministry of Education had already said in a statement that it “has no relationship with the police operation and does not intend to comment on the matter”. The MEC also did not comment on why Carla Ariane was received at the ministry building, in Brasília, in an off-the-agenda meeting on July 12, 2024. When contacted again, the ministry did not comment until the publication of this text.
The investigation
In the Life owner’s diary, Carla is called “daughter-in-law”. In the municipality of Sumaré (SP) alone, around R$52 million were transferred to the company between 2021 and 2023, part under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government and part under Lula), with money from Fundeb (Basic Education Maintenance and Development Fund). She would have continued receiving payments in 2024.
The operation carried out in partnership with the CGU (Comptroller General of the Union). She investigated fraud in tenders for embezzlement of funds from the education sector in city halls.
