SAO PAULO — Brazil’s Federal Police have accused former President Jair Bolsonaro of money laundering and criminal association in connection with undeclared diamonds the far-right leader received from Saudi Arabia during his term, according to a source with knowledge of the allegations.
A second source confirmed the accusation, although not for what specific crimes. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The Supreme Court of Brazil has not yet received the police report with the accusation. Once he does, the country’s attorney general, Paulo Gonet, will analyze the document and decide whether he will press charges and force Bolsonaro to stand trial.
This is the second accusation against Bolsonaro since he left office, after another in May for allegedly falsifying his COVID-19 vaccination certificate. But this accusation dramatically raises the legal threats facing the divisive former leader, which are applauded by his opponents but denounced as political persecution by his supporters.
Bolsonaro had no immediate comment, but he and his lawyers have previously denied any wrongdoing in both cases, as well as other investigations into the former president. One is investigating his possible involvement in inciting an uprising in the capital Brasilia on January 8, 2023 that sought to oust his successor from power.
Last year, the Federal Police accused Bolsonaro of trying sneak in diamond jewelry He is reportedly worth $3 million and sells two luxury watches.
Police said in August that Bolsonaro received cash from the nearly $70,000 sale of two luxury watches he received as gifts from Saudi Arabia. Brazil requires its citizens arriving by plane from abroad to declare assets worth more than $1,000 and, for any amount above that exemption, pay a tax equivalent to 50% of its value.
The jewelry would have been tax-exempt if it had been a gift from Saudi Arabia to Brazil, but not from Bolsonaro to keep. Rather, it would have been added to the presidential collection.
The investigation showed that Mauro Cid, Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp who allegedly falsified his COVID-19 records, sold a Rolex watch and a Patek Philippe watch to a store in the United States in June 2022 for a total of $68,000. They were gifted by the Saudi Arabian government in 2019. Cid later signed a plea deal with authorities and confirmed everything.
Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son and a sitting senator, said on X after Thursday’s accusation that the persecution against his father was “brazen and brazen.”
In addition to Bolsonaro, the police charged ten other people, including Cid and two of his lawyers, Frederick Wassef and Fábio Wajngarten, according to one of the sources. Wassef said in a statement that he did not have access to the final report of the investigation and denounced the selective leaks to the press of an investigation that is supposed to be carried out under summary secrecy.
“I am going through all this solely to practice law in defense of Jair Bolsonaro,” he wrote.
In X, Wajngarten said police have found no evidence implicating him. “The Federal Police know that I did nothing related to what they are investigating, but they still want to punish me because I provided an unwavering and permanent defense to former President Bolsonaro,” he stated.
Bolsonaro maintains unconditional loyalty among his political base, as evidenced by an outpouring of support in February, when some 185,000 people filled Sao Paulo’s main boulevard to protest what the former president calls political persecution.
His critics, particularly members of the political party of his rival, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have applauded each progress of the investigations and have repeatedly called for his arrest.
Psychologist Deborah Santos watched the news about Bolsonaro’s accusation at a bakery in Sao Paulo’s exclusive Vila Madalena neighborhood.
“This is great, because it breaks a pattern. Bolsonaro’s supporters love to say how honest he is; everyone else is dishonest except them,” said Santos, 52. “There you have it: the police think he steals diamonds. “That should end the career of any politician.”
The 69-year-old former army captain began his political career as a staunch defender of Brazil’s military dictatorship and was a legislator for nearly three decades. When he first ran for president, in 2018, he was widely dismissed as an outsider and too radically conservative. But he surprised analysts with a decisive victory, largely because of his portrayal of himself as an upstanding citizen in the years after a sprawling corruption investigation that ensnared hundreds of politicians and executives.
Bolsonaro insulted his adversaries from his first days in office and drew criticism for his divisive policies, attacks on the Supreme Court and efforts to undermine health restrictions during the pandemic. He lost his re-election bid in the closest result since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985.
Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, believes that Brazil’s Supreme Court and the judge overseeing several investigations against Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, will not risk sending the former president to prison or imposing other measures. hard in a hurry. The goal, he said, is to avoid inciting the far-right leader’s supporters and thus make the cases against him more politically sensitive to prosecute.
“This is a year of mayoral elections. Moraes and his fellow judges know that prosecuting a former president who remains a popular man would be even more difficult in a year like this,” Melo said. “This accusation is another piece of the puzzle. It gives Bolsonaro one more problem. There will be more.”
Last year, Brazil’s top electoral court ruled that Bolsonaro abused his presidential powers during his 2022 re-election bid, leaving him ineligible for any election until 2030. The case centered on a meeting during which Bolsonaro used to government personnel, the state television channel and the presidency. Brasilia palace to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.
Bolsonaro is expected to meet Argentine President Javier Milei this weekend at a conservative conference in Balneario Camboriú in southern Brazil.
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