This Wednesday (1st), an operation was carried out that has as its main targets the surroundings of the deputy (RJ), leader of the na, under the authorization of the minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court). The parliamentarian is not the target of the measure.
It is the third phase of Operation Rent a Car, which arrived at the end of last year to investigate suspected embezzlement of public resources from parliamentary quotas.
In December, at an address linked to Sóstenes, the PF seized more than R$460,000 in cash. At the time, Sóstenes told the press that he suffered persecution for being right-wing and that cash was found at his address the previous week.
This Wednesday’s phase’s main targets are the people who made cash withdrawals of this money and a lawyer from Minas Gerais who presented a version of the acquisition of this property.
When contacted through the press office at 7am, the deputy has not yet commented.
The PF states that the current phase aims to deepen investigations into the movement and allocation of resources related to the deviation of parliamentary quotas.
Suspicions of possible crimes of embezzlement, money laundering, procedural fraud and criminal organization are being investigated. Five search and seizure warrants were executed in the Federal District, Goiás and Minas Gerais.
According to the corporation, “investigations point to signs of a possible scheme involving public agents, private individuals and legal entities allegedly used to give the appearance of legality to the movement of public resources.”
“There is also evidence of possible attempts to conceal or alter evidence, which could constitute procedural fraud.”
The parliamentary quota is a monthly amount that the deputy receives to cover expenses incurred during the term of office, such as office rental in the state, airline tickets and car rental, among others.
The police’s suspicion in last year’s operation was that a car rental company hired by deputies and paid through the parliamentary quota continued to receive money even after being irregularly dissolved.
Sóstenes said that the buyer wanted to pay him for the apartment in cash and that he had not deposited the funds yet because of “this rush of work”.
“I ended up not making a deposit, but I would have. In fact, part of it, I’ve been thinking about doing other business and everything, I ended up not making the deposit”, he replied.
In the previous phase, deputy Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ) was also the target of searches and reacted by publishing a video on social media that called the action “cowardly”.
He said that the justification for the search and seizure is that he had diverted resources from the parliamentary quota to a closed car rental company, which would be the same company that he has rented cars from since the beginning of his first term.
