São Paulo.- Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered this Friday the freezing of assets belonging to Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), the party of presidential pre-candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.
The measure, reported by Brazilian media, was issued by judge Flávio Dino and is based on investigations carried out by the Federal Police, which point to the existence of a network dedicated to the embezzlement and diversion of public funds.
According to the Federal Police report, cited by the Estadão Agency, the politician allegedly used Chamber of Deputies officials to divert official budget resources for his own benefit.
As a result of this judicial operation, the judge ordered the freezing of Costa Neto’s assets in an amount totaling 119 million reais (about 23 million dollars) and urged the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Hugo Motta, to submit within the next ten days all documents that authorized the transfer of the suspicious amounts.
Costa Neto is a historic leader of the PL, of which the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro is honorary president, and he exerts strong influence over the party’s deputies, which is currently the largest in the Brazilian Congress.
Against the accusations
In a statement, the politician’s defense denied the accusations, insisted on his “innocence,” and lamented the “premature public exposure of an investigation that is still in its preliminary phases” during a period of “special institutional and electoral sensitivity,” less than three months before the presidential elections.
Furthermore, he highlighted that there is no “evidence” or “indication” to prove that Costa Neto “consciously” adhered to an “alleged criminal scheme”.
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In the statement, the lawyers highlighted that the Prosecutor’s Office had spoken out against decreeing precautionary measures, which were ultimately imposed based on “assumptions”.
This judicial setback occurs at a time of internal tensions within the Brazilian far-right’s own political force, in the middle of an election year.
Recently, Costa Neto held meetings with Flávio Bolsonaro in an attempt to mediate and find a way out of the crisis unleashed between the pre-candidate and his stepmother, Michelle Bolsonaro, wife of the far-right former president.
