The Civil Police operation this Monday (1st), which targeted City Hall offices and the headquarters of the producer of the film “”, about the life of (), bothered the mayor (), an ally of the senator (PL-RJ), who spoke of political motivation for the action.
A in hiring the entity ICB (Instituto conhecimento Brasil) to manage the city hall’s free Wi-Fi program. The institute is chaired by Karina Ferreira da Gama, who is also the owner of Go UP Entertainment, producer of “Dark Horse”.
One of the suspicions investigated is that resources were diverted from the program. Karina could not be reached to comment on the operation.
“If the motivation, as you are telling me, is because of the film, then you are going after a contract with the city hall for 2024 because of that. That’s serious, it’s political persecution,” said the mayor. “If it’s a political issue, it’s a serious mistake. I think it’s disrespectful to democracy,” he declared.
Police arrived at around 8 am at the Municipal Secretariat for Innovation and Technology, on Líbero Badaró Street, in the city center, and searched three floors of the building. Before 10 am, they had already left the place.
According to Sheet found, moments after the police officers left, the department’s main secretary, Humberto Alencar, informed Nunes and the other secretaries that the operation had gone smoothly and that the material taken by the agents was part of public processes, available on the city hall website, and that they had already been sent to the Investigations Office on Crimes against the Administration.
The mayor received the news while preparing to participate in a housing delivery event on Avenida Prestes Maia, a few blocks from the operation site, and decided to question the action.
“What I think, and then you will allow me, knowing the way I am, that sometimes I exaggerate my sincerity, I think it is more because the person from that entity participates in Bolsonaro’s film than specifically in that process”, he said.
Nunes discussed with interlocutors, according to the investigation Sheetthe possibility that the police have information that the city hall does not know about the case. Even so, given what was taken by the agents in the operation, the option was to criticize the action.
The mayor said he had asked for a review of the process twice last week. “What I received from my team is the affirmation that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring,” he declared.
When asked about the absence of invoices and other documents highlighted by the investigators, he stated that the contracting model provides for subsequent accountability and said that unproven expenses had already been disregarded by the municipal administration.
“In the 2024 analysis, more than R$2 million were disallowed because it was a service that had not been proven,” said Nunes. “If there is something wrong, the city hall will not pay or will deduct it.”
Nunes also rejected suspicions of targeting in the public call won by the ICB. “For 30 days, only this entity proposed to perform this service for this amount. There was no request for objection, questioning, no other entity wanted to participate,” he stated.
The mayor also said that the city hall will collaborate with the investigations. “If there is anything wrong, I will be the first to take action. But, so far, from everything I’ve seen, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this process.”
The Civil Police investigation was opened in March, at the request of the Public Ministry, to investigate possible irregularities in the contract between the city hall and the entity for the provision of Wi-Fi, at a cost of R$108 million.
Throughout the investigations, police officers raised signs of flaws in the company’s selection process, which had never operated in this field, in the amount agreed for each access point and in payments that would have been made before the connection points were installed.
In the contract with the Nunes management, each Wi-Fi point contracted through the institute cost R$1,800. The Civil Police states that Prodam, the city’s public municipal technology company, provides identical services at a cost of R$230 for implementation per point and R$306 for monthly maintenance.
The city hall has been denying any irregularity and has indicated, when questioned, a BI (business intelligence) page that monitors the program in real time. At the press conference, the mayor questioned the values indicated by the Civil Police.
When speaking to journalists, the mayor defended the possibility of Karina having a film production company and a company that manages Wi-Fi programs. “I have a packaging company, I have a health certification company, I have a farm, I have several activities and I am mayor. What’s the problem with a person having several activities?”
The film “Dark Horse” (underdog, in English), produced by Karina’s Go UP, received financing from Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, arrested in March amid a Federal Police investigation into bank fraud identified as one of the biggest in the country.
Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) asked Vorcaro for money to produce the film and at least R$61 million was paid to finance the work. The senator, a presidential candidate, visited the banker after he was arrested for the first time, in November last year.
Nunes declared support for Flávio’s election on March 1, just days before Vorcaro’s arrest. Flávio denies that he knew about the crimes attributed to Vorcaro when he sought resources for production and .
