08/23/2024 – 20:29
The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Espírito Santo (MP-ES) has indicted Judge Bruno Fritoli Almeida, of the State Court of Justice, and 19 other people in Operation Follow The Money. They are accused of corruption, money laundering, criminal organization and use of false documents.
In addition to the conviction, the Public Prosecutor’s Office is seeking R$34 million in collective moral damages. The complaint is signed by the State Attorney General Francisco Martinez Berdeal.
It is now up to the Espírito Santo Court of Justice to assess whether there are grounds for opening criminal proceedings. The case is confidential.
According to the investigation, the judge was allegedly involved in a fraud scheme to illegally withdraw inheritances. When the suspicions became public, the defense denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he had been working “for almost a decade with integrity and responsibility.”
“Confident in Bruno’s character during his career in the judiciary, we will continue to follow the development of the case and act, with the instruments of the law, for his innocence,” says the statement released by lawyers Rafael Lima, Larah Brahim and Mariah Sartório.
Judge had a scheme to take inheritance from dead people, says Public Ministry
The Public Prosecutor’s Office claims that the group identified dead people without heirs and with large sums of money in the bank or in real estate. The next step was to forge contracts, promissory notes and debt acknowledgment documents in the name of the deceased. With the false documents in hand, the group filed requests to receive the debt, which in reality did not exist.
Investigators suspected fraud because they noticed that the petitions followed a specific model, generally describing similar situations and always with requests that the cases be processed in secret.
The MP estimates a loss of more than R$17 million.
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