The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), considered that there are no suspicions about parliamentarians in the investigation brought on a flight in which the president of , (-PB), and the senator (-PI) were present in 2025.
The magistrate archived this Thursday (21) the investigation in relation to the senator and the deputies and ordered that the case return to the 1st Federal Court of Sorocaba (SP) as he understood that, based on the elements collected by , there was no evidence of involvement of the parliamentarians in the crimes being investigated.
An excerpt from the PF report states that only the pilot of the flight passed outside the equipment with unchecked suitcases and that “it is not possible to categorically state who the volumes belong to or their contents.” The investigation investigates possible facilitation of smuggling or embezzlement and malfeasance.
HAS Sheet the president of the Chamber stated, in a statement, that Moraes’ decision “is self-explanatory” and that he continues to trust and believe in Justice.
Ciro Nogueira’s office sent a note in which the parliamentarian stated that he had received the news of the filing “naturally, as this was the only possible development, as he had always complied with all the protocols required by the Federal Revenue Service”.
“We are only sorry that an absurd and unreasonable ‘report’ like this has had so much space in the press,” the senator said in the statement.
In addition to Motta and Ciro Nogueira, deputies Doutor Luizinho (PP-RJ) and Isnaldo Bulhões (-AL), both leaders of their parties in the Chamber, were on the aircraft. In total, the flight had 16 passengers. The case was revealed by Sheet at the end of April.
The episode occurred when Fernando Oliveira Lima, known as Fernandin OIG, returned from a trip to the Caribbean island of São Martinho, owner of online betting companies that offer games such as Fortune Tiger — popularly known as the “little tiger game”. He was the target of the Bets CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry).
According to Moraes, the fact that Motta, Ciro, Dr. Luizinho and Isnaldo were on the flight “does not represent circumstances indicative of any participation in the crimes” and the images attached to the files would show that they had carried out the correct inspection procedure.
“From the examination of the elements attached to the file, the aforementioned parliamentarians did not find any minimal evidence of the occurrence of a criminal offense, and there is, therefore, no real evidence of a typical act committed by the defendant or any indication of the means he would have used in relation to the conduct subject to investigation, or even the harm he caused, the reasons that determined it, the place where he carried it out, the time or any other relevant information that justifies the opening of an inquiry or any investigation”, says an excerpt of the decision.
Moraes welcomed the statement from the (Attorney General’s Office), which expressed the same sentiment on Wednesday (20), about a month after the case’s rapporteur asked, on April 24, for a position within five days.
“The Attorney General’s Office is right to do so, as the initiation or maintenance of a criminal investigation without just cause constitutes an unfair and serious embarrassment to those being investigated,” stated the minister.
In its opinion, the PGR stated, for example, that there is no record of labels with the names of parliamentarians on luggage that passed outside the X-ray. “There is, finally, no evidence of a connection between the passengers on the flight and possible conduct of criminal interest.”
Despite Moraes’ decision and the PGR’s statement, the case was sent to the Supreme Court at the request of the Public Ministry itself. “The Public Prosecutor’s Office, following a partial report from the police authority, requested the decline of jurisdiction in favor of the Federal Supreme Court to assess jurisdiction by identifying people with forum prerogative”, says a decision dated March 18.
According to the investigation, the volumes did not undergo X-rays upon arrival in São Paulo, when a tax auditor authorized them to be released without inspection.
The island where Hugo Motta, Ciro Nogueira, Luizinho and Isnaldo Bulhões were with the betting businessman is considered a tax haven by the Federal Revenue Service. The place is also known as the Las Vegas of the Caribbean due to nighttime attractions such as casinos.
PF report states that fiscal auditor Marco Antônio Canella allowed pilot José Jorge de Oliveira Júnior, flight commander and employee of Fernandin’s company OIG, to pass with the volumes outside the X-ray, at Catarina International Executive Airport, in São Roque (SP), in the metropolitan region of Sorocaba, around 9 pm on April 20, 2025.
The Federal Police document states that only the pilot passed outside the equipment with unchecked suitcases and that “it is not possible to categorically state who the volumes belong to or their contents.”
“There is, therefore, no way to rule out the possibility of the involvement of one or more passengers holding forum privileges in the crimes under investigation in these cases or in other criminal practices that may be revealed during the course of the investigations”, says an excerpt from the report.
WHAT THOSE INVOLVED SAY
Motta confirmed that he was on the flight, but stated that, upon disembarking at the airport, he “complied with all protocols and determinations established in customs legislation”.
On May 12, the president of the Chamber also said he hoped that the PGR would deepen the investigation as much as possible to show that he and his wife, Luana Medeiros, did not commit irregularities.
“The footage itself shows the pilot, or the auditor – I don’t know what happened that was being investigated – go through the x-ray with those belongings,” said Motta. “The same footage can show that me, my wife, and the other passengers went through the x-ray and [que] all of our luggage went through x-rays,” he declared.
Pilot Jorge Oliveira said he does not remember the day of arrival, but declared that the process took place “in accordance with the rules of current customs legislation”. According to him, each passenger disembarks with their belongings individually.
“I follow the same standard, and each pilot only transports their own items, so that, in any inspection, they are responsible exclusively for what they carry. In the company, it is a rule that no crew member carries passengers’ belongings, limiting themselves to their own”, he stated.
Fernandin OIG said that the items belonged to the flight commander and that disembarkation followed the normal process.
The tax auditor was also contacted by email and phone call, but there was no response.
