06/13/2024 – 18:25
The suspicions that Operation Fundo no Poço investigators raised about the president of Solidariedade Eurípedes Gomes Macedo Júnior are not limited to an estimated embezzlement of R$36 million from the Party Fund with orange candidacies or the use of the party’s money for international tours of its relatives. A fugitive from Justice, he is also being investigated by the Federal Police for his possible involvement in the disappearance of a helicopter valued at R$ 3.5 million from PROS and, also, for the ‘dismantling’ of the party’s headquarters and graphics park. The feds also place him under suspicion of connection with a theft scheme through fraud that would have resulted in the ’emptying of the group’s accounts’ on the eve of his dismissal from the presidency of PROS.
O Estadão has reiterated to Solidariedade a statement about the PF investigation that attributes to its president an extensive routine of crimes. The space is open for the legend and Euripides.
The long list of suspicions that fall on Euripides’ conduct is contained in the court decision that put the PF on his trail – another six people under investigation were arrested at the opening of Operation Fundo no Poço, this Wednesday, 12th.
The siege of Eurípides was authorized by judge Lizandro Garcia Gomes Filho, from the 1st Electoral Zone of Brasília. When ordering the party leader’s preventive arrest, the magistrate highlighted evidence that points to misappropriation of resources from the Party and Electoral Funds, for the benefit of Euripides himself and his family and allies.
The PF describes him as the head of a criminal organization ‘structurally organized with the aim of diverting and appropriating resources from the Party and Electoral Fund’.
According to a report from Operation Fundo no Poço, he ‘manages the political party as a private asset, obtaining illicit personal and family enrichment through the diversion and appropriation of public resources destined for party political activity’.
As shown by the Estadãoamong the suspicions that place Euripides at the center of a plot with party money is the diversion of resources from the party fund to pay for his family’s trips to the United Arab Emirates, France, Dominican Republic, United States, Mexico and Italy, including with extended stops in Panama, a tax haven.
The allocation of significant amounts of the electoral fund to the benefit of candidates identified as ‘orange’ is also being investigated, with an estimated loss of R$36 million.
The PF lists other illicit episodes in which the president of Solidariedade participated and had important weight in the decree of his preventive detention. Judge Lizandro Garcia Gomes Filho, from the 1st Electoral Zone of Brasília, noted that Eurípedes’ arrest is ‘essential to guarantee public and economic order’ considering the seriousness of the conduct attributed to him by the PF and the ‘authoritative evidence of materiality and authorship’.
The judge issued a warning by highlighting in his decision the proximity of municipal elections. According to him, Euripides’ activities are ‘umbilically intertwined with the electoral process, given the direct impact that the crimes under investigation have on the democratic process and the stability of the political system, given the proximity of the 2024 municipal elections’.
“The Solidariedade Party will manage million-dollar electoral funds, with a serious risk of the continuation of criminal acts, given the perception that the accused, his family and people related to him remain in important positions in the Solidariedade Party and the 1º de Maio Foundation, with strong suspicion that they persist in full criminal activity along the same lines perpetrated in the then PROS. The need to guarantee criminal investigation is mandatory”, he argued.
The ‘dismantling’ of the PROS headquarters and graphics park was highlighted by Lizandro Garcia in the decree of preventive detention of Eurípedes. According to the judge, the imbroglio reveals the ‘risk’ that Euripides could ‘compromise the production of evidence with the aim of embarrassing the continuation of the investigations’.
The PF indicates that the former president of PROS, now president of Solidariedade, ‘ordered a dismantling’ of the party’s graphics park in Planaltina (GO) on the eve of the judgment of the Court of the Federal District and Territories that removed him from the presidency of that party.
Investigators say they found an invoice indicating that the equipment had been sold for R$868,000. However, according to the PF, the valuation of the equipment exceeds R$15 million, ‘denoting a deviation of values in favor of the investigated group’.
Still regarding the ‘dismantling’ of PROS, the PF report points out that, in addition to the machinery, ten vehicles, a helicopter, computers and air conditioning units were removed from the party headquarters.
According to judge Lizandro Garcia, the destination of numerous assets has not yet been clarified. He cited one of these assets when assessing the need for Euripides’ preventive detention.
The judge pointed out the risk of flight for the president of Solidariedade ‘given his repeated trips to international destinations’ and recalled news that the PROS party helicopter is in an uncertain location – “it does not sound absurd to consider that such an aircraft could be clandestinely used for the benefit private”, he noted.
The Federal Police also raised suspicions about the acquisition of properties – including with payments in kind – by alleged shell companies of which Eurípedes is or has already been a partner.
Operation Fundo no Poço investigates whether the companies were set up to launder money arising from embezzlement.
The investigators suspect that one of the companies – in which the suspect’s wife and daughters are also partners – ‘was set up with the aim of preserving Euripides’ assets, in addition to obtaining advantages in the payment of taxes, mainly commercialization or transfers of properties’. .
When analyzing this suspicion, the judge of the 1st Electoral Zone of Brasília pointed out that the majority of companies did not have effective activity and presented ‘constant crossed financial movements (between family members and companies), large amounts of cash withdrawals and bank transactions incompatible with the declared income’.
According to the judge, this scenario ‘reinforces evidence of crimes against the financial system, particularly the crime of laundering and crimes inherent to the misuse of electoral resources’.
Reports from the Financial Activities Control Council also implicate Euripedes, according to the PF, as ‘indicating’ a possible crime of money laundering. The investigators raised evidence of alleged electoral misrepresentation, with the insertion of a false declaration of PROS expenses in 2021 via a company created by Eurípedes, now in the name of one of his brothers.
Not even the purchase of paper by the party went unnoticed by the PF: investigators question a payment of R$ 1.6 million to a paper distributor days before Eurípedes was removed from the management of PROS, outside the campaign period and after the ‘dismantling’ ‘ from the party’s graphic park.
The feds see signs that it is a cold invoice or ‘production and sale of graphic material for profit’. At this point, judge Lizandro Garcia highlights the ‘signs of misuse of party assets’.
The PF also analyzed financial withdrawals of R$3 million from PROS accounts after Eurípedes’ removal – the refund was later reported to the Fundação da Ordem Social, linked to the party.
The PF classified this movement as ‘serious indication of a criminal organization’.
“Upon being removed by court decision from the party command, on March 8, 2022, (Eurípides) sought to empty the group’s accounts, proceeding to transfer amounts from the party fund to the foundation (FOS), where he would still have powers of management and direction”, states the PF report.
There is also a ‘strong suspicion of money laundering’ through the hiring of legal services. The investigation shows that PROS, in the 2022 elections, paid R$3.7 million in fees to law firms.
WITH THE WORD, EURIPIDES AND SOLIDARITY
The report from the Estadão asked for a statement from Solidariedade and its president, Eurípides Gomes Macedo Júnior, which had not occurred until the publication of this text. The space remains open.
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