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RIO – A cell phone discovered hidden under a pile of clothes, in the house of businessman Rafael Alves, was essential for the investigations into the operation of an extensive corruption scheme that is suspected of operating in the Rio mayor’s office. The telephone, among the four seized, was what was effectively being used by the businessman in March of this year, when the Civil Police and the MP carried out a search and seizure of his residence in a condominium in Barra da Tijuca.
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It was the device that even rang during the investigators’ presence at the house. On the other side of the line, Mayor Marcelo Crivella was looking for information about the operation that was being carried out. A delegate answered him and, noticing that he was not speaking with Rafael, he hung up.
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In total, four Rafael’s cell phones were seized. Only one of them was spontaneously delivered by the businessman. In addition to the one hidden under clothing, there were two others inside a car parked near the house. In the vehicle there were also jewelry, watches and a bag with R $ 50 thousand. For the MP, this could be “a kind of escape vehicle,” that is, a car ready to let Rafael escape, if necessary. The businessman claimed that everything inside the vehicle belonged to Shanna Harrouche García, her ex-wife and daughter of the bicheiro Waldemir Paes García, Maninho.
The analysis of the phones showed that, between May 2016 and March of this year, the mayor and the businessman exchanged 1,949 messages, which ended up revealing the close connection between them and the scope of the scheme for which they are being investigated. Communication between the two was often encrypted, making it difficult for third parties to understand. Much of the content of the mobile phone has been erased, but researchers have managed to recover it.
In a note, Rafael’s lawyer, João Francisco Neto, said that the MP interprets the messages “in a biased way”, without worrying about the clarifications of the client, who wants to be heard.
