A Brazilian Supreme Court judge authorized access to the bank details of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle, as part of an investigation into alleged diversion of jewelry and other official gifts, local press reported.
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The Federal Police (PF) of Brazil suspects that close collaborators of Jair Bolsonaro resold official gifts received from foreign countries, in particular jewelry, for the “illicit enrichment” of the former president (2019-2022).
According to the local press, Federal Supreme Court (STF) judge Alexandre de Moraes authorized PF investigators access to the banking and tax data of Bolsonaro and his wife in Brazil, and a request for international cooperation to access to that information in United States, where his collaborators would have sold or tried to sell high-value objects.
Contacted by AFP, neither the STF nor the PF confirmed this authorization.
“Obviously it makes you uncomfortable, but there is no problem” with the decision, Bolsonaro told local journalists this Friday, while having coffee in a bakery in the state of Goiania (center-west), during a personal trip.
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The former president reiterated that he did not receive money from the jewels received during his tenure and said he wants to “clarify the case as soon as possible.”
Among the state gifts there are two sculptures, one in the shape of a ship and the other of a palm tree, offered by the government of Bahrain during a visit by Bolsonaro in 2021.
In addition, there is men’s jewelry offered by Saudi Arabia, such as a custom watch and fountain pen from the luxury Swiss brand Chopard.
“The evidence collected showed that during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro a structure was created to divert high-value goods that were given to him (…) for the purpose of illicit enrichment,” Judge Moraes said last week, when ordering searches in the house of former assistants to the president.
In April, Bolsonaro testified before the PF in the context of the Saudi jewelery case and denied any wrongdoing.
The former president traveled to the United States two days before the end of his term and was absent on January 1 at the inauguration of leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated him by a narrow margin in the October elections of last year.
Bolsonaro, who was recently convicted by the electoral court and will not be able to run for the next presidential elections for publicly attacking the Brazilian electoral system, has several open fronts in the courts.
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Among other cases, the highest court is investigating an alleged role in the acts of vandalism committed against the headquarters of the Presidency, the Congress and the STF by a crowd of his followers, on January 8 in Brasilia.
AFP
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