The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, sent, this Monday (6), a letter to the Federal Police (PF) to investigate the suspicions that members of the government of then-president Jair Bolsonaro tried to enter the country illegally, in 2021, with a set of jewelry that the government of Saudi Arabia allegedly gave as a gift to the then first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro.
In the letter to the director general of the PF, delegate Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues, the minister states that, “in the way they are presented”, the facts disclosed by the press “may constitute crimes against the Public administration”.
According to the newspaper The State of S. Paulo, Federal Revenue inspectors seized, in October 2021, at Guarulhos International Airport, in São Paulo, a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of diamond earrings. Valued at around 3 million euros (approximately R$ 16.5 million), the jewels were found in the backpack of the military man Marcos André dos Santos Soeiro, who was an advisor to the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque.
Soeiro and Albuquerque were returning from an official trip to the Middle East. Also according to the newspaper, the then minister would have asked the Revenue officials to release the jewels, but the inspectors did not comply with the request, claiming that entering the country with official gifts from foreign government officials to the Brazilian government follows a specific legal procedure.
By law, items worth more than US$ 1,000 are subject to taxation when entering national territory. In this case, in addition to paying 50% in taxes for the value of the goods, a 25% fine would be charged for attempting to enter the country illegally, that is, without a declaration to the customs authorities.
Withheld for non-payment of due taxes, the jewels remain in the possession of the Revenue. The entire approach to the airport was properly filmed by security cameras on site.
Minister Flávio Dino had already announced, on Friday (3), that would ask the PF to investigate the matter. On his personal Twitter account, Dino stated that the facts “may configure the crimes of embezzlement, embezzlement and money launderingamong other possible crimes”.
In the letter sent today to the director general of the PF, Dino emphasizes that, according to reports published in recent days, the seizure of the jewels that “would be delivered to the then President of the Republic” raised, “in the subsequent months [à retenção]various measures [por parte da gestão federal] aiming at the release of jewels kept under the custody of the Federal Revenue”.
The newspaper The State of S. Paulo reported that, in the last months of his government, Jair Bolsonaro would have tried, at least four times, through letters, to receive the seized jewels, without success. One of these letters was sent on December 28, 2022, on the eve of the end of the presidential term, but the request was again denied by the Federal Revenue Service.
On Saturday (4), the Federal Revenue issued a press release in which it states that, since the jewels were seized, there has been no attempt to regularize themnor a substantiated request to incorporate the jewels into public property, even after guidance from the body.
Other side
After the disclosure of the allegations, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro made a post on her Instagram account to comment on the matter. She even made fun of the case. “I have all this and I didn’t know? My God!” she wrote.
Jewelry seized by the Federal Revenue – Twitter/Playback
Former President Jair Bolsonaro, on the other hand, denied any illegality. On CNN, Bolsonaro said that the jewels would go to the collection of the Presidency of the Republic. “I am being accused of a gift I neither asked for nor received. You’re going too far, huh?! I’m laughing at the inappropriateness of this vexatious press. There is no illegality on my part. I never practiced illegality. See my personal corporate card. I’ve never withdrawn or paid a penny on that card.”
In a note, the press office of former Minister Bento Albuquerque informed that the jewels were “institutional gifts intended for the Brazilian Representation made up of a delegation from the Ministry of Mines and Energy – therefore, to the Brazilian State. And that, as a result, the Ministry of Mines and Energia would adopt the appropriate measures for the correct and legal handling of the collection received”.
The statement differs from previous statements that the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo attributed to Albuquerque. According to the newspaper, previously, the former minister confirmed that the jewels were a gift from the Saudi government to Michelle Bolsonaro.
