Supreme Court removes five members from the Mato Grosso State Court of Auditors.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux has ordered the removal of five members of the State Court of Auditors: Antônio Joaquim, José Carlos Novelli, Valter Albano, Sérgio Ricardo, and Valdir Teis. Like the Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, they are also targets of search and seizure warrants, suspected of receiving bribes from former governor Silval Barbosa (PMDB). In a plea bargain, former governor Silval Barbosa (PMDB) accused State Court of Auditors member José Carlos Novelli of soliciting R$ 53 million in bribes in 2012 to avoid hindering the progress of road paving projects under the MT Integrado program.
Do Media News - Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux has ordered the removal of five members of the State Court of Auditors: Antônio Joaquim, José Carlos Novelli, Valter Albano, Sérgio Ricardo, and Valdir Teis.
They are also targets of search and seizure warrants, suspected of receiving bribe money from former governor Silval Barbosa (PMDB).
The Federal Police continue to execute search and seizure warrants in the offices of the council members; the employees of the TCE-MT (Court of Accounts of Mato Grosso) have been dismissed from work.
The expectation is that the agents will remain at the TCE-MT headquarters until the end of the morning.
In a plea bargain, former governor Silval Barbosa (PMDB) accused councilor José Carlos Novellli, of the State Court of Auditors, of requesting R$ 53 million in bribes in 2012, in order not to hinder the progress of works under the MT Integrado program, for paving highways.
In a plea bargain approved by the Supreme Court, Silval said that the money would be divided between Novelli and the four council members who are targets of the Federal Police operation this Thursday.
According to the former governor, the advisor demanded the signing of 36 promissory notes as a guarantee for the payment of the bribe.
According to what he reported to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the bribes to the council members would be paid through government contracts with the company Gendoc Sistemas e Empreendimentos Ltda.
Only one of the contracts with the company was worth R$ 50 million, and its purpose was the digitization, archiving, and storage of documents, such as publications in the State Official Gazette.
Silval reported that between R$ 15 million and R$ 20 million had been paid in bribes by Gendoc - another R$ 15 million was paid from an expropriation in the Renascer neighborhood, in Cuiabá.
The former governor also said that the negotiation with the TCE-MT (Court of Accounts of Mato Grosso) was allegedly mediated by the former Chief of Staff, Pedro Nadaf, and by federal deputy Carlos Bezerra (PMDB), who also allegedly received bribes. Bezerra reportedly received R$ 1 million in the scheme.
Silval said that in 2014 there were delays in the payment of bribes and that council member Sérgio Ricardo, currently removed from the TCE-MT (Court of Accounts of Mato Grosso), halted the works.
The former governor allegedly promised that the remainder of the bribe would be paid to the council members by the end of 2014, through a supplementary allocation to the Court of Auditors' budget.
According to him, in the decision that halted the works, the council member pointed out irregularities in the MT Integrado project, and subsequently, a TAC (Terms of Adjustment of Conduct) was made for the resumption of the works.