The family has several cases pending in the courts

The corruption of the Bolsonaro clan

photo_camera REUTERS/ADRIANO MACHADO - Flavio Bolsonaro (left) and Carlos Bolsonaro, sons of Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

Almost since he began his mandate as president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has had to face accusations of corruption in people in his family and closest environment. 

Two weeks after taking office, the justice system began to tighten its grip on his son Flávio Bolsonaro in the Queiroz Case, in which the Brazilian president's first-born son and his parliamentary advisor, Fabricio Queiroz, are being investigated for buying deputies, criminal organisation and money laundering in the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro. 

The case came about almost by chance when investigators were analysing anomalies in the bank accounts of twenty state deputies and found indications of corruption in the accounts of Bolsonaro's son and Queiroz. In total, they detected irregular movements worth 1.2 million reais in one year, which did not match the declared salary. 

El presidente brasileño Jair Bolsonaro

Before his eldest son, Queiroz had a close relationship with the Brazilian president that began in 1984. In addition, a few years before winning the elections, during the government of Michel Temer, suspicious bank movements were detected between Queiroz and the bank account of the president's wife, Michelle Bolsonaro. 

Queiroz was subsequently arrested on 18 June this year after spending a year hiding in a residence belonging to one of the Bolsonaro family's lawyers, located in the state of Sao Paulo. The advisor took some of the money from the other advisors and gave it to Flávio. He also hired "ghost" officials for his cabinet as an excuse to siphon off large sums of money. 

Finally, in November last year it was the Prosecutor's Office that accused Flávio Bolsonaro of leading the corruption scheme and of the crimes of criminal organisation, embezzlement, money laundering and misappropriation between 2007 and 2018.

This week, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), in charge of trying Flávio given his current status as a senator, rejected two appeals presented by his defence. A setback that means the survival of the process for the time being. The Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro currently puts the amount of money diverted from public coffers at 6.1 million reais. 

Information published by the Uol portal claims that Carlos Bolsonaro and Jair Bolsonaro himself replicated Flávio's modus operandi, when the former was a councillor and the latter a federal deputy. The investigation is still ongoing. 

Another advisor to Flávio Bolsonaro who has caused problems for the president is ex-cop Adriano da Nóbrega. The well-known militiaman, a member of the criminal group Escritório do Crimen, was killed in February 2020 in a police operation. Nóbrega was suspected of the murder of Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, a member of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL).

Jair Renan, hijo del presidente de Brasil Jair Bolsonaro
Carlos Bolsonaro behind the fake news

Last April, the Federal Police identified another of the president's sons, this time Carlos Bolsonaro, as the head of an organisation dedicated to creating fake news to defame political opponents. His brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has also been targeted by the police for the same scheme. 

Many then suggested that Maurício Valeixo, director of the Federal Police, was dismissed by Bolsonaro to protect his family. Circumstances that led to the resignation of Judge Sergio Moro from the Ministry of Justice. 

As Folha de S.Paulo reported at the time, there was no doubt among the Federal Police that Bolsonaro had tried to put pressure on Valeixo because he knew that the investigation was stalking his son. 

El diputado brasileño Eduardo Bolsonaro, hijo del presidente brasileño Jair Bolsonaro
Federal Prosecutor's Office opens investigation into youngest son

Renan Bolsonaro, aged just 22, owns the company Bolsonaro Jr Eventos e Mídia. The company was created in 2020 and, as its name suggests, is in charge of organising events.

Allan Lucena, one of the partners of the Gramazini company, dedicated to mining and construction, and who attended the inauguration party of Renan Bolsonaro's company, with whom he has a good relationship, is also in the crosshairs of the investigation.

According to the prosecution's complaint, Renan allegedly acted so that Lucena's business group could get two meetings at the Ministry of Regional Development to discuss a project to build affordable housing for vulnerable populations.

El exasistente político del senador Flavio Bolsonaro Fabricio Queiroz (Derecha) es visto llegando al Instituto de Medicina Legal (IML) en Sao Paulo, Brasil, el 18 de junio de 2020, después de haber sido detenido por la Policía Civil de Sao Paulo y el Ministerio Público en la ciudad de Atibaia, estado de Sao Paulo, tras una solicitud de la Justicia del Estado de Río de Janeiro

The defence of Bolsonaro's youngest son claims that he did not schedule any meetings or help Gramazini in his relationship with the federal government. They also claim that Lucena is simply his friend and personal trainer, but that there is no business relationship between them.

More and more judicial fronts are accumulating for the Bolsonaro family, something that contrasts with the anti-corruption discourse that the president made in his campaign. At the same time, his government's handling of the pandemic, with four successive health ministers since the health crisis began, is increasingly eroding his popularity. At the end of January, a Datafolha poll showed that 31% of Brazilians thought the president was doing a "good" or "very good" job, while 40% thought he was doing a "bad" or "lousy" job. This is his worst approval rating in his two years at the helm of Brazil.  

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.

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