Thursday, March 09, 2023

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Dispute Over Mysterious Saudi Jewelry Worth $3 Million Haunts Bolsonaro


Wed, March 8, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- A dispute over $3 million worth of jewelry allegedly from Saudi Arabia is set to present another headache for former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro when he returns home from his US vacation.

Brazil’s national comptroller on Tuesday started probing the case, which involves a cache of jewelry — including a diamond necklace, earrings and a watch made by the Swiss brand Chopard. Bolsonaro’s former Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque confirmed over the weekend that his delegation brought the items into the country — now run by leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva — as a gift from the Saudi government to Bolsonaro and his wife, Michelle, without declaring them to customs agents.

The country’s federal police also launched an investigation at the request of the justice ministry.

The case came to public attention on March 3 when newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported that Brazilian customs officials seized jewelry found inside a suitcase carried by an aide to Albuquerque as they returned from an official trip to the Middle East last October. Brazilian law requires travelers to declare goods worth more than $1,000 for tax purposes, but Albuquerque’s team failed to do so.

Public outrage has been growing in Brazil as details of the case emerge. Brazilian officials aren’t allowed to keep most valuable gifts they receive, and have to place them in public collections maintained by the state. The investigation will seek to discover whether Bolsonaro or his associates were attempting to smuggle the jewelry into Brazil, and if they sought to shield the gift from entering the president’s official collection, which would make it government property, according to the justice ministry. Potential money laundering crimes will also be considered, according to Justice Minister Flavio Dino.

(Tweet translation: “Federal police launches inquiry to investigate attempt by Bolsonaro government to bring jewelry worth millions into the country without declaring it to customs”)

Bolsonaro on March 4 denied wrongdoing, telling a gathering of conservatives in the US that he neither asked for nor received the gift. Michelle Bolsonaro said on social media that she didn’t know about the jewels. Albuquerque said he didn’t know what the boxes his team brought into Brazil contained. An official with the Saudi Foreign Ministry reached by Bloomberg News said Riyadh is investigating the reports and gathering all the facts and plans to issue a formal statement soon.

Retrieval Attempts


Officials from Bolsonaro’s government attempted to retrieve the jewelry at least eight times between October 2021 and December 2022, when his term came to an end, according to Estado. Brazilian authorities are currently holding the jewels in a safe box, its customs agency said in a statement.

Federal police are investigating another case from the same trip, when a man entered Brazil with jewelry also made by Chopard. He was not stopped by customs and the box of items was eventually delivered to the presidency, according to Estado.

Bolsonaro’s lawyer in Brazil on Tuesday said the president has acted according to the law, declaring all the gifts intended for personal use he received during trips abroad.

Yet the probe will create another potential legal headache for the right-wing leader who left Brazil in late December, just days before Lula took office.

Bolsonaro is already facing investigations into whether he attempted to plan a coup with some of his closest allies, some of whom have been arrested. Authorities are probing his unproven claims about the integrity of Brazil’s electoral system in a meeting with foreign ambassadors. He is also under scrutiny over whether he incited the Jan. 8 insurrection attempt in which his supporters raided Brazil’s congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace in an effort to topple the Lula government.

Bolsonaro has said he will return to Brazil in March to lead the conservative opposition to his leftist rival. His wife was scheduled to launch those efforts this week with a political trip sponsored by Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party. But the party suspended the plan after the scandal broke.

Lula’s government has said that Bolsonaro should come home and face the various court cases involving him, and set an informal deadline for him to do so by April. Flavio Bolsonaro, a senator and one of the former president’s sons, said on Tuesday that his father would return on March 15. But he corrected himself minutes later, saying the date isn’t set yet.

Bolsonaro has not faced formal charges in any of the cases against him.

--With assistance from Sam Dagher.

Probe into Bolsonaro jewelry scandal could delay his return to Brazil - sources


Brazil's President and candidate for re-election Jair Bolsonaro attends a news conference at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia

Tue, March 7, 2023

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) -A criminal probe into former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's alleged efforts to illegally bring $3.2 million of jewelry into the country could further delay his return from the United States, sources tied to Bolsonaro told Reuters on Tuesday.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino on Monday ordered police to investigate the case. Bolsonaro is in self-imposed exile in the United States after losing his re-election bid last year.

Luxury jewelry gifted to Bolsonaro and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro by the Saudi government was seized by customs officials at São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport in October 2021.

Brazilians are allowed to bring in $1,000 of goods or gifts and pay hefty taxes for anything over that value.

The Bolsonaro administration unsuccessfully tried to recover the jewelry multiple times through government officials, according to local media.

The episode is further complicated, the sources said, by a series of letters from officials in Bolsonaro's government asking for the jewelry to be released. One was sent on the eve of his departure for the United States two days before his term ended in December, they said.

Bolsonaro has said he plans to return to Brazil this month to lead the opposition and defend himself against accusations that he instigated the Jan. 8 riots in Brasilia, in which his supporters stormed government buildings. He has also indicated plans to run again for president in 2026.

Bolsonaro lost the Oct. 30 election to his leftist rival President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. For months ahead of the vote, he had cast baseless doubts on the electoral system, creating a potent force of election deniers.

Bolsonaro, who began his self-exile in Florida, has been seen greeting supporters, eating at fast food restaurants and addressing conservative meetings. He has been unwilling to put a firm date on his return.

He entered the United States on a visa reserved for heads of state and other government officials, then applied for a six-month tourist visa. Since he no longer holds public office, he is more vulnerable to court-ordered measures such as search and seizure warrants.

His son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said earlier on Wednesday his father would return on March 15, but quickly deleted the post.

"I'm sorry for the previous post, I might be missing him a lot," he tweeted, adding date was "likely but still unconfirmed."

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito in Brasilia and Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Chizu Nomiyama and Richard Chang)

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