The Superior Military Court (STM) declared the loss of the rank of a Navy corvette captain due to embezzlement. The decision was taken by the court on the 19th of this month and responded to the request of the Military Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPM), which filed an action regarding the indignity of the officer due to the crime. 
The captain was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for stealing fuel from the corvette Frontin, which was docked at the Rio de Janeiro Naval Base. The crime occurred in 2012. The loss from fuel diversion was valued at R$346,200.
During the investigation, an unusual bank transaction of R$1.5 million was discovered in the captain’s accounts.
According to the ruling, the STM ministers understood that the captain committed a crime against the administration and tarnished the decorum of the military class and the image of the Brazilian Navy.
With the loss of rank, the soldier must be expelled from the Navy. However, the salary will be passed on to the wife or daughters in the form of a pension. The benefit is known as “fictitious death” and has been provided for in Armed Forces legislation since 1960..
Coup plot
The STM should judge at the beginning of 2026 the MPM’s possible request to lose the rank of former president Jair Bolsonaro and other Armed Forces soldiers convicted in the criminal action of the coup plot.
The case involves Bolsonaro, who is an Army reserve captain, generals Augusto Heleno, Paulo Sergio Nogueira, Braga Netto and admiral Almir Garnier.
According to the Constitution, an Armed Forces officer can be expelled in the case of a criminal conviction exceeding two years in prison for a criminal conviction. In the case of the coup plot case, the military’s sentences vary between 19 and 27 years in prison.
The military court is made up of 15 ministers, five of whom are civilians and ten are military, whose seats are distributed among four vacancies allocated to the Army, three to the Navy and three to the Air Force.
