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The Secretary of Education of the State of Rio, Pedro Fernandes (PSC), was arrested this morning in an operation of the Civil Police and the MP-RJ (Public Ministry of Rio) that investigates alleged deviations of up to R $ 30 million in the government of Rio de Janeiro and in the city hall of the capital. Five arrest warrants and six search and seizure warrants are executed.
In addition to Fernandes, former federal deputy Cristiane Brasil (PTB-RJ) is also among the targets of the preventive arrest warrants, but has not yet been located. Cristiane is the daughter of former Congressman Roberto Jefferson and a candidate for the City of Rio in the November elections. The Civil Police expect him to surrender at the end of the day.
She was even considered a minister in the government of Jair Bolsonaro. In a statement, Cristiane said she was the victim of “political persecution.” Fernandes’s defense was not found.
Fernandes, a former state deputy, was located at his home in Barra da Tijuca, on the west side of Rio, but his pretrial detention turned into house arrest when he presented a medical certificate showing that he is recovering from Covid-19.
Cristiane Brasil served as secretaries under former mayor Eduardo Paes (DEM). He is responsible for alleged crimes committed between 2013 and 2017. According to the MP, he was part of the “political core” of the resource diversion scheme led by Fernandes.
The operation points to suspicions of fraud in tenders
The orders were issued within the framework of the 2nd phase of Operation Catarata, which investigates fraud in the bidding contracts of the Leão 13 Foundation, linked to the state government and focused on actions for people with limited resources. In this case, contracts related to vision care are investigated, hence the name of the operation.
According to the MP, the criminal group used companies made up of relatives, employees and close people, as well as OS (Social Organizations), to give the appearance of competitiveness and defraud bids.
According to investigations, the victory of Servlog Rio – a company linked to the defendant Flávio Chadud (who was also arrested) and his wife, Marcelle Chadud (which was denounced) – in the tender it was already predefined.
In the first phase of the operation, last year, seven businessmen were arrested. The investigation deepened and discovered fraud in other projects of the foundation, which included the municipal departments of Healthy Aging, Quality of Life and Events and also in the Secretariat for the Protection of People with Disabilities, according to the MP.
Suspicions about the contracts involving the state government are concentrated during the term of former governors Luiz Fernando Pezão and Sérgio Cabral (both from the BMD). At that time, Fernandes, who was a candidate for governor in 2018, held the Secretariat for Social Assistance and Human Rights for two terms.
More recently, during the administration of the current mayor of Rio, Marcelo Crivella (Republicans), the former deputy was in charge of the Municipal Secretariat for Social Assistance and Human Rights, before being invited to assume the Secretariat of State for Education of Rio in early from last year.
More prisons
In addition to Fernandes, the police made three more arrests this morning. The businessman Flávio Salomão Chadud and his father, the former delegate Mario Jamil Chadud, as well as João Marcos Borges Mattos, former director of financial administration of the Leão 13 Foundation, were arrested.
They are investigated for the crimes of bid fraud, embezzlement, active and passive corruption, money laundering, criminal organization, in addition to trying to hinder the investigations.
In a statement, the Rio government said it supported the investigations. “Operation Catarata is an investigation that began in the State Comptroller General (CGE), with the support of the Civil Police, carried out in 2019, in the contracts of the Novo Olhar project, of the Leão XIII Foundation, referring to the years 2013 to 2018, that is, in previous administrations. Today’s action shows that the Government has the greatest interest in investigating all the facts, “the statement said.
Fernandes has been in various terms
Pedro Fernandes was elected state deputy for the first time in 2006, by the PDT. In 2008, he was a vice-candidate for the City of Rio in the plate headed by Solange Amaral (DEM), under the baton of César Maia, for whom he had been Secretary of the Environment. In 2010, Fernandes left the PDT and was reelected state deputy for Sérgio Cabral’s PMDB, later being secretary of Social Assistance for his government.
Fernandes left PMDB in 2014, when he went to Solidariedade. In 2017, he was again appointed Secretary of Social Assistance, this time in the Pezão (MDB) administration, later assuming the Science and Technology portfolio, under the same government. In 2016 he became Crivella’s secretary of Social Assistance and, this year, he returned to the PDT.
In 2018 he was a candidate for state government through the PDT. In the debates, he made a kind of “double” with the opposition Eduardo Paes (DEM). However, he surprised everyone and supported Wilson Witzel (PSC) in the second round of the elections. Despite this, he denied that the support was conditional on any position and affirmed that he would pursue a doctorate abroad. However, he was appointed secretary by the former opponent a few days later.
Former MP talks about political persecution
In a statement, Cristiane Brasil alleged “political persecution” in the operation that led to his arrest today. According to her, the actions are aimed at reaching her and her father for their candidacy for the City of Rio.
“They had eight years to investigate this unfounded complaint, made in 2012 against me, and they did not do it because they did not want to. But it seems now that I am a candidate for mayor in a clear attempt to politically persecute my father and me,” said Cristiane .
The defendant ex-MP Martha Rocha (PDT), also a pre-candidate for the City of Rio, and the president of Alerj (Rio Legislative Assembly), André Ceciliano (PT), for being behind the actions.
“This must have the finger of the candidate Martha Rocha, Cowitzel (derogatory nickname given to the outgoing governor Wilson Witzel) and André Ceciliano. Revenge and politics are not the role of the Public Ministry or the Civil Police,” he concluded Robert Jefferson’s daughter.
