Homes of Bolsonaro aides raided in Brazil jewels probe

BRASILIA - Brazilian police raided the homes of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s allies accused of reselling gifts including jewellery from foreign dignitaries.

The gifts were resold for the “illicit enrichment” of the former president, a judicial judgment showed on Friday.

The divisive right-winger categorically denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers say that he “never appropriated or misappropriated any public good”, according to a statement posted on G1 news site.

The scandal broke earlier in 2023, when newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported that Customs officials had seized a set of jewels from a government aide who tried to bring them into the country undeclared in his backpack in 2021.

Brazilian law bars public officials from keeping expensive gifts.

Elements of the police investigation were disclosed in a judgment by Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes to justify search warrants carried out by federal police on Friday at the homes of the former Bolsonaro aides.

“The evidence collected showed (the existence), during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, of a network to divert goods of a high amount which were offered to him,” part of the judgment read.

“Beyond allowing an inadmissible enrichment of the President of the Republic... it is possible that the Brazilian head of state was co-opted by foreign nations through these assets”, investigators believe.

They also reported goods placed in “a suitcase transported on the presidential plane on Dec 30”, when Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States two days before the inauguration of his left-wing successor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated him in an October 2022 election.

Among those state gifts were two sculptures given by the government of Bahrain during a state visit in 2021, as well as gifts from Saudi Arabia including a watch and a fountain pen from Swiss luxury brand Chopard, investigators say.

One of those suspected of reselling these gifts is Mauro Cid, a former top aide to Bolsonaro, who has been in prison since May over falsification of Covid-19 vaccination certificates.

According to investigators, Cid mentioned in an audio message “25,000 dollars in cash” which would be intended for the former president after the sale of certain goods.

Known for a brash style that earned him the nickname “Tropical Trump”, Bolsonaro, the army-captain-turned-congressman surged to prominence as a presidential candidate in 2018 by playing to voters disgusted with corruption and economic mismanagement.

After presiding over a presidency marked by scandals including his handling of Covid-19,

Bolsonaro has now been barred from office for eight years

over his unproven claims of massive fraud in the country’s election system.