Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is being investigated on suspicion illegally imported gemstones diamonds donated by Saudi Arabia and has five days to return those in his possession.
Here’s a look at what is known about this case, which could become both a legal and a political problem for the far-right ex-president (2019-2022). It is expected to return to Brazil from the United States soonwhere he has lived since Lula da Silva took over the presidency on January 1.
Former Bolsonaro Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, who paid an official visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2021, assured that an “envoy” from the Saudi government handed over to his delegation two packets at the end of his journey, as he told the newspaper Or State of S. Paulo.
Back in Brazil, customs officials at Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo found that an Albuquerque assistant was carrying one of the boxes in his backpack. without explaining
The first contained a necklace, ring, watch and pair of earrings valued at $3.2 million. AFP photo
the diamonds
Officials discovered that the package was full of diamond jewelry and confiscated them for failure to pay the required import duties.
As can be seen on video surveillance images from local television, the former minister assured that the jewels They were intended for First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro.
Officers discovered the package was filled with diamond jewelry. AFP photo
Albuquerque spoke to police investigators Tuesday and tried to be less persistent, saying it was all about jewelry he assumed they were for the former First Ladyaccording to local media.
Bolsonaro’s government has reportedly tried at least eight times to persuade customs inspectors to do so You will release the jewelswith a final administration on the penultimate day of the mandate.
The second package escaped customs control and it was given to Bolsonaro, who would have kept it, according to Albuquerque.
Bolsonaro reacted in the first days of the scandal: “You accuse me of a gift that I neither asked for nor received. There is no illegality on my part.” he told CNN Brazil.
Both packages contained jewelery from the luxury Swiss brand Chopard.
In the first was a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of earrings, worth $3.2 million.
The second contained a watch, a ring, a pen, a pair of cufflinks and a rosary, a set estimated at $75,000 according to Brazilian media.
Forbidden
According to Brazilian law, travelers entering the country with assets in excess of a thousand dollars must declare them.
According to Brazilian law, travelers entering the country with assets in excess of a thousand dollars must declare them. AFP photo
In this case, the owner would have had to pay import taxes on the jewelry, equal to half the value of more than a thousand dollars.
The former presidential couple could have imported the jewelry duty-free if they had been declared gifts to the statebut in this case the objects would have remained in the collection of the Presidential Palace of Planalto.
“Government officials they are absolutely forbidden from accepting gifts of great value to themselves, even to the President of the Republic,” said Isac Falcao, President of Sindifisco, the trade union representing tax authority employees.
“Every official knows that,” he told the AFP news agency.
The Federal Police (PF) and the Tax Agency opened separate investigations into the case.
The chair of the Senate Transparency Committee also announced an investigation to determine if the jewels have any connection to the $1.65 billion sale of an oil refinery in northeastern Brazil to UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala that same year.
The first set of jewelry will remain at Guarulhos International Airport.
The Federal Tax Administration says the deadline to regularize its legal position was July 2022, and that now the objects could be auctioned, donated, added to national heritage or destroyed.
Brazilian media reported on Monday that Bolsonaro had agreed to hand over the second set of jewelry to the authorities.
The Union Court of Accounts (TCU), which oversees the public coffers, ordered on Wednesday that Bolsonaro return in five days the second jewel for the General Secretariat of the Presidency to be integrated into the heritage of the State.
It also found that customs delivered the first package to the same point and ordered an audit of all gifts during Bolsonaro’s tenure.
Last week he asked Bolsonaro and Albuquerque to do it They were questioned by the police.
A date for Bolsonaro’s testimony has not yet been announced.
In a plenary session this Wednesday, the TCU could order the former president to return the jewels as the investigation continues.
The episode drew little attention in Saudi Arabia, where there was no official response from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Source: AFP
bp
look too