The senator (-RJ) kept in his office from June 2025 until this week a former vice president fired by .
Celso Leonardo Barbosa received R$20,700 a month as a parliamentary advisor to . He was exonerated after Flávio was approached by the Sheet.
“The information revealed by the report is extremely serious and incompatible with the conduct required of any member of the parliamentary team,” said the senator, in a statement.
Celso Leonardo was contacted by phone, both on his cell phone and in Flávio’s office. He was not there when the Sheet called at 10 am on Friday (22), and did not respond to the contact afterwards nor did he respond to new attempts to contact him this Monday (25).
The former Caixa deputy was a trusted man of the bank’s former president and stayed at the financial institution from 2019 to 2022, when he was fired shortly after his boss, who also left after accusations of harassment.
A Sheet found that Celso Leonardo made a non-criminal prosecution agreement with the courts in the harassment process, in which he accepted the blame and performed community service.
As the report found at the time of his dismissal, a bank employee reported that she had felt harassed by him on a Caixa Mais Brasil program trip to Goiás.
In 2022, Celso Leonardo was also accused by a bank employee of having covered it up.
Furthermore, he is being prosecuted by the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) on charges of ideological falsehood. According to the complaint, Celso Leonardo had inserted untrue information in the documents necessary for appointment to the position of vice-president of Caixa.
After being questioned by Sheet regarding the presence of Celso Leonardo in his office at the Legislature, Flávio stated that he “omitted relevant judicial issues from his immediate leadership and, in addition, seriously violated the rules of the Federal Senate by carrying out private activities during office hours”.
“The office does not condone any misconduct, abuse of trust or non-compliance with functional obligations. Given the seriousness of the facts, the dismissal was carried out immediately”, stated the PL pre-candidate for the Presidency.
According to his own CV, Celso Leonardo held the position of parliamentary advisor and professor at Fundação Dom Cabral, a private educational institution.
On his social networks and on his website, he omitted his role in Flávio’s office, defining himself as “teacher, speaker, mentor, author, angel investor and specialist in management, strategy, innovation, AI and entrepreneurship”.
There is also no mention of his time at Caixa on his website. He says that since 2020 he has been a professor at Fundação Dom Cabral, without mentioning the position of vice-president at the public bank.
Fundação Dom Cabral said in a statement that Celso Leonardo “is accredited as an occasional guest professor, without an employment relationship with the institution.” “The work of guest teachers occurs on a punctual basis, according to the specific demand of educational programs and projects”, he stated.
The institution also said that it “carefully monitors situations that may impact its institutional principles, its relationship with clients and its educational environment” and that “in view of the information received, the participation of the aforementioned professional in future activities is undergoing internal reassessment”.
“FDC reaffirms its commitment to an environment of respect, integrity and institutional responsibility, and to selection and accreditation processes conducted based on technical criteria and in accordance with current legislation”, he concluded.
On his social networks and on his website, Celso Leonardo posts various activities, such as lectures and classes, during working hours. Some of them are outside Brasília, where he lives and works.
On April 22 and 23, a Wednesday and Thursday, for example, he participated in a Senac course in Mato Grosso do Sul. On January 19, a Monday, he participated in the Future of Entrepreneurship conference in Rio de Janeiro.
On December 4th last year, a Thursday, he went to São Paulo for the lecture “Artificial Intelligence in Business Management”.
Pedro Guimarães was president of Caixa Econômica Federal from the beginning of the former president’s government (PL) until , after accusations of sexual harassment.
During his management, he surrounded himself with trusted people, such as Celso Leonardo, who held the position of vice-president of Wholesale Business, two days after his boss.
