The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, said this Monday (6) that the suspicions surrounding the episode of withholding jewelry that the Saudi Arabian government allegedly gave as a gift to the then first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, should be investigated with zeal, guaranteeing those involved the right to defend themselves.
The items, valued at around 3 million euros (approximately R$ 16.5 million), were found in the backpack of the military Marcos André dos Santos Soeiro, who was an advisor to the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, when they returned from a official trip to the Middle East.
The case was revealed by the newspaper The State of S. Paulo. 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. For Haddad, the jewels should necessarily have been incorporated into public property.
“Everything contributes to the fact that, from what is determined by the Federal Court of Accounts, by the Commission of Public Ethics of the Presidency of the Republic, nothing was observed in relation to the jewels”, he said, after meeting with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto Palace. “The estimated value is an atypical thing. No one gets a R$ 16 million gift, and the Presidency of the Republic did not adopt the appropriate procedures for incorporation into public assets, which is why the Federal Revenue auditors, quite rightly, informed the legal procedure and kept the jewels in the Revenue vault. Federal in São Paulo, so that they would not be unduly appropriated by anyone”, he highlighted.
“Any gift of this value has to be incorporated into public assets. And, if an ordinary citizen receives a gift like this and wants to bring it to Brazil, he needs to declare and pay the taxes”, added Haddad, praising the performance of the auditors of the Recipe “They acted in accordance with the law, withstanding enormous pressure and not allowing themselves to be carried away by it until the Brazilian population was aware of what was happening.”
