STJ turns the arrest of a businessman considered the ‘money man’ into preventive action in the operation that dismissed Witzel | Rio de Janeiro

According to the complaint, José Carlos de Melo – who has been in prison since last Monday – would be the “money man” of the group.

The businessman surrendered to the Federal Police on Monday (31). He was on the run for three days, since an operation detained Pastor Everaldo Pereira, national president of the PSC, and 8 other people in the operation Tris en Idem, on the 28th of last month.

This Friday (4), in another decision, the minister also transformed the detention of Pastor Everaldo, president of the PSC, from temporary to preventive. Gonçalves responded to a request from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

José Carlos and the other prisoners were cited in the statement from former Secretary of Health Edmar Santos. In addition to being considered the “man of money”, he was already pro-rector of the Unig (University of Iguazú). According to the MPF’s denunciations, José Carlos would be the head of one of the three groups that competed for illicit power and advantages within the government.

José Carlos’s differential was always having cash. According to the Edmar Santos statement, he managed the companies that would serve the portfolio, receiving securities through this intermediation.

In July of last year, Edmar Santos said that he complained about the difficulty of receiving bribes in a meeting with Edson Torres and Víctor Hugo Cavalcante, Pastor Everaldo’s money changer.

The result of the meeting was a “gift”: a credit card with a monthly limit of R $ 20 thousand for Edmar Santos to spend as he wanted.

The former secretary says that other people also used a similar card, such as Edson Torres and the secretary of state for cities, Juárez Filho, who even showed him the card.

Also according to the complaint, Edmar Santos twice received R $ 300 thousand offered by José Carlos de Melo, appointed as head of one of the nuclei of the criminal organization.

The first time, Edmar Santos took the money in a backpack from José Carlos, and then they charged him to return it. The other would have been delivered in two installments: one by Carlos Frederico Loretti, José Carlos’s financial operator, and the other by Claudio Marcelo, who was in charge of storing the valuables in a safe in Portugal.