The Federal Police (PF), the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) and the Federal Revenue launched this Tuesday (13) the ninth phase of the Operation Overclean aiming to dismantle a criminal organization suspected of embezzling public resources resulting from parliamentary amendments, corruption and money laundering.
In a statement, the PF reported that nine search and seizure warrants were being executed, issued by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in Bahia and the Federal District. The main target is federal deputy Félix Mendonça Júnior (PDT-Bahia).
“The STF ordered the blocking of R$24 million in the bank accounts of individuals and legal entities being investigated, with the aim of stopping the movement of amounts of illicit origin and preserving assets for eventual repair to the public coffers”, detailed the statement.
According to the PF, those under investigation may be held liable for the crimes of criminal organization, active and passive corruption, embezzlement, fraud in tenders and administrative contracts, in addition to money laundering.
Initial phases
The first phase of the Operation Overclean was launched on December 10, 2024 and investigated the targeting of public resources from parliamentary amendments and agreements to companies and individuals linked to Bahian city halls.
At the time, the PF reported that the scheme had the support of police officers, who passed on sensitive information to the criminal organization, such as the identification of federal agents involved in confidential investigations.
Still during its first investigations, in December 2024, Overclean had the help of the American Homeland Security Investigations Agency (Homeland Security Investigations) to investigate the diversion of public resources from parliamentary amendments and agreements.
There were suspicions of overpricing in works and diversion of resources to “companies and individuals linked to municipal administrations” – which would have generated around R$1.4 billion.
At the time, the PF reported that the “illegal scheme would have directly affected the National Department of Works Against Droughts (DNOCS)mainly in the State Coordination of Bahia, in addition to other public bodies”.
By court order, eight public servants were removed from their duties.
Recent phases
In June 2025, during the fourth phase of the operation, the removal of two mayors from Bahia was determined, suspected of deviating from parliamentary amendments: Humberto Raimundo Rodrigues de Oliveira, from the municipality of Ibipitanga; and Alan Machado, from Boquira.
In July 2025, in the fifth phase of Overcleanthe nucleus investigated allegedly manipulated bidding procedures and diverted public resources from parliamentary amendments destined for the Bahian municipality of Campo Formoso.
According to investigators, there was also an attempt to obstruct the investigations. The Federal Supreme Court, at the time, determined the blocking of R$85.7 million from the accounts of individuals and legal entities under investigation.
The seventh phase of Overclean It was launched on October 16th. In it, a precautionary measure was issued that ended up removing from office a public agent suspected of participating in the scheme.
Search and seizure warrants were executed in the Bahian cities of Riacho de Santana, Wenceslau Guimarães; and Arraial do Cabo (RJ).
And in the eighth phase of the operationat the end of October, five search and seizure warrants were executed in Brasília, São Paulo, Palmas and Gurupi (TO) as determined by the STF.
* Gabriel Brum, from National Radio
