2023-05-05 22:11:30
Defendant in criminal proceedings for embezzlement, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization, state deputy Rogério Nogueira (PSDB) is appointed by the MPSP (Ministério Público de São Paulo) as the “leader” of a gang that not only practiced Alesp (São Paulo Legislative Assembly), but would also have diverted resources from the House based on a fraud scheme in reimbursement of cabinet funds. He denies it.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the group embezzled BRL 4,193,571.98 from public coffers between 2009 and 2019, including forming a “cash” to settle the parliamentarian’s personal expenses.
The complaint was received two weeks ago by the Special Body of the Court of Justice, a collegiate body made up of 25 judges — the 12 most senior judges in the Court, 12 elected by their peers and the president of the TJ (Court of Justice).
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The “rachadinha” comprises permanent transfers of part of the salaries of cabinet employees to the parliamentarian.
When detailing the scheme to the state court, the Attorney General’s Office described the toucan deputy as “the greatest beneficiary of the criminal scheme”. According to the complaint, he was responsible for defining who would be nominated for appointments, sizing the amounts that would be returned, choosing the destination of the misappropriated amounts and also determining when a member of the group should be exonerated from Alesp.
The indictment says that Rogério Nogueira and the other 25 defendants “have joined forces in a stable, permanent, structurally ordered manner characterized by the division of tasks, with the aim of directly obtaining economic advantages through the commission of an indeterminate number of crimes.” .
In addition to the “crack”, the group operated another diversion scheme, says the Public Prosecutor’s Office, linked to the resources used by the Assembly to pay expenses of the toucan’s office.
According to the complaint, businessmen issued false receipts and invoices, with which they simulated the provision of services to the parliamentarian. In turn, he asked the House to reimburse the amounts referring to services that “in reality had not been provided”.
“The amounts attributed to the simulated expense were refunded and diverted to the benefit of Deputy Rogério Nogueira”, highlighted the Attorney General’s Office.
Structure
The document narrates the “hierarchical scale of the criminal organization”, placing Nogueira’s chief of staff in a prominent position, just below the deputy. The Attorney General’s Office appoints Pérsio Paura as the group’s “financial operator”. He made “his current accounts available for the reception of most of the deviated values”.
“He was largely responsible for training and managing the cash to cover the parliamentary’s personal expenses as they arose”, pointed out the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the complaint to the Court of Justice.
According to the indictment, Pérsio also held a “command position” in the criminal organization, as he had “subordinates” to whom “under the supervision and guidance of Rogério Nogueira, he gave instructions on how they should act so that it was possible to achieve the desired criminal purpose by the parliamentarian”.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office highlighted two other suspects: Ivy, whose accounts were used to receive a smaller part of the embezzled money; and Márcia, who received “amounts in cash, withdrawn by the advisors, as a rule, on payday, and, subsequently, settled the deputy’s personal expenses”.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, while Pérsio benefited from part of the embezzled amounts, Ivy and Márcia “had no share in the proceeds” of the criminal organization.
Another 19 accused “lent” their names and current accounts to make it possible to appoint and fill positions in the commission, with the consequent transfer of values to the deputy appointed as leader of the criminal organization.
washing
To launder the misappropriated amounts, the criminal organization had three methods, says the prosecution. The first consisted of transferring sums to the accounts of the scheme’s financial operator, the head of Nogueira’s office, and of another defendant, subordinate to number two in the gang.
The second method: the amounts passed on and not used were immediately kept in the accounts of the operators, “forming a kind of “box” for the payment of future personal expenses of the parliamentarian, when they became part of his assets with the appearance of lawfulness”.
In another stage of the scheme, a slice of the embezzled amounts was withdrawn by advisors from the “cash box” and delivered, in cash, to one of the accused, who settled Rogério Nogueira’s personal expenses.
There were also cases in which the advisors themselves were responsible for paying the congressman’s bills.
Other side
The report asked for a statement — via email to the cabinet — from Deputy Rogério Nogueira and his assistants mentioned in the complaint by the Attorney General’s Office. When the Special Body of the Court of Justice of São Paulo received the complaint, the toucan published a note in which he denied the practice of illicit acts.
“There is no complaint from any employee against him, and he is confident that everything will be clarified, as he trusts the Justice. With regard to the evolution of his assets, he explains that long before entering politics he was already a businessman and investor, being public knowledge that parliamentary activity is not and has never been his only professional activity”, says the text.
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