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RIO – Three days before Christmas, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Marcelo Bezerra Crivella (Republicans), was arrested this Tuesday morning. The politician was being investigated in an investigation that became known as “Bribery HQ”, a corruption scheme that took place within the city council. In addition to Crivella, Rafael Alves, the mayor’s confidant and designated as the operator of the scheme, Councilor Fernando Moraes, was arrested. Former senator Eduardo Benedito Lopes is also the target of an action that is led by the Coordination of Investigation of Agents with Forum (CIAF) and by the State Attorney’s Office, but he was not found at his home. The decision is made by Judge Rosa Helena Penna Macedo Guita.
It was shortly before 6 in the morning when investigators arrived at the Crivella case, in Barra da Tijuca, in the West Zone of Rio. Four cars with police and prosecutors stopped at the scene. Crivella will be transferred to the Police Town Hall, in the North Zone.
Understand: The MP operation directed at ‘Bribery headquarters’ in the Crivella government
Revealed exclusively by GLOBO in December, the ‘HQ of Tip’ investigation targeting the Crivella government is based on the award-winning collaboration of money changer Sérgio Mizrahy, detained by operation Câmbio, Desligo last year.
In the statement, approved by the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice, Mizrahy referred to a “bribery headquarters” within Riotur and appointed Rafael Alves, the mayor’s henchman, as the operator of the alleged plan.
The money changer stated in the statement that Rafael Alves became one of Crivella’s trusted men when he articulated donations for his 2016 election campaign.the receipt of old open bills, left in the administration of former mayor Eduardo Paes, all in return of bribery payments ”.
To prosecutors, Mizrahy said he received checks from Rafael’s city service providers weekly. The trader said one of them was a bribe from the Locanty company, which performs cleaning, garbage collection and vehicle rental services. Although it has no contracts under Crivella’s direction, the company collects the debts left by the previous management.
To prove his testimony, Mizrahy recounted events that occurred on May 10 and 11 last year, shortly after his arrest. It says that two employees of Riotur, a company headed by Rafael’s brother, were at Mizrahy’s house during those two days to “exchange” checks with his wife for the payment of bribes from Locanty. The money changer calls them Johny and Thiago in the statement. GLOBO found that their full names are Jones Augusto Xavier de Brito and Thiago Vinícius Martins Silva, and that, in fact, they were employed at Riotur at the time; currently, only Thiago remains in the municipal company, located in the office of the presidency; Jones left Riocentro SA in July of this year
