Deputy Attorney General says report cited by Época magazine does not exist.

Goiás 247 – The Attorney General's Office (PGR) has not received any confidential report containing information about alleged irregularities committed between the Delta Group and the illegal gambling operator Carlos Cachoeira and the Government of Goiás, with the participation of Governor Marconi Perillo. In response to a request from the governor's lawyers to access the document, which formed the basis of a report published in last week's edition of Época magazine, Deputy Attorney General Lindora Araújo stated that she had not received the report. Therefore, the document cited by the magazine is not part of the Operation Monte Carlo case, contrary to what the report claims. In a previous statement, the Attorney General's Office had already informed that such a report is not and never has been in the possession of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF).

Governor Marconi Perillo has already forwarded a request to the Attorney General of the Republic, Roberto Gurgel, for an investigation into the possible crime of leaking confidential information from the case being processed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office. In a statement released yesterday, the Government of Goiás said, based on information obtained by the Deputy Attorney General, that the report is "a jumble of fragments taken from more than 30 hours of recordings, attempting to establish connections between conversations of third parties and payments made by the Public Security Secretariat to Delta Engenharia."

The Government of Goiás also states that “the story told by Época no longer holds up in light of the facts and actions of the Goiás government regarding Delta's business dealings in the State.” According to Marconi's lawyers, the report becomes “even more inconsistent with the information that the alleged report to which the magazine refers is not part of the Attorney General's Office's case file nor is it known to the Deputy Attorney General.”

The representation submitted by the governor to Gurgel notes that “as soon as Operation Monte Carlo was launched, rumors began to circulate that people from the Government of the State of Goiás had had contact with Carlos Augusto de Almeida Ramos and that “dialogues began to be selectively and gradually leaked in order to embarrass the applicant's government.” The representation also states that “absurd rumors were spread” that the governor “could have undue involvement” with Carlos Cachoeira and that “political opponents began to question the sale of a house belonging to the applicant, notwithstanding the fact that the governor conducted the transaction with total transparency.”

The complaint states that, despite the successive clarifications provided by the governor, considered sufficient by the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPMI) on Cachoeira, established in the National Congress, the governor “has been the daily target of journalistic reports that seek to spread rumors about the involvement of the Government of the State of Goiás with Carlos Cachoeira's group.” It further states that “since nothing compromises the applicant and his government, a simple and frivolous strategy” of “selective disclosure of telephone conversations” is being used.

The representation then cites the article published by Época magazine and states that, "because it was so distorted, the article did not even gain credibility with the main media outlets in the country" and that "the document is under the care of Deputy Attorney General Lindora de Araújo, one of the most experienced investigators in the Public Prosecutor's Office," only to then observe that, according to the Deputy Attorney General herself, such a report is not under her care or jurisdiction.

New attack

In a new report published in this week's edition, Época magazine once again attacks Governor Marconi Perillo, again in a story built from fragments of Operation Monte Carlo and citing documents and recordings under seal that are allegedly in the possession of the 11th Federal Court of Goiânia. The magazine claims that "there are dialogues in which it is said that Perillo 'ordered the transfer' of a contract to Delta that could yield R$ 1,2 billion."

The magazine states that “in other dialogues, Perillo is cited as being responsible for ordering, through former senator Demóstenes Torres (former DEM), that the director of the Detran in the State (Edivaldo Cardoso), appointed by Cachoeira, hire a company belonging to a friend of the governor. Época also concludes that “it is also discovered that a brother of Perillo, named Antônio Pires Perillo, or Toninho, had a Nextel cell phone activated in the United States to communicate with Cachoeira – and that Toninho provided services to him.”

The Government of Goiás stated to the magazine that it “never told anyone” to transfer the construction of the Goiânia light rail system to Delta. “This statement is infamous and irresponsible. How could the governor ask someone to 'transfer a contract'?”

“A project that didn’t even exist on paper, and it wasn’t even known if it would be executed?” states a note sent by the Government of Goiás to the magazine, which publishes the clarifications in a few lines at the end of the report. The Government of Goiás further clarifies what the entire population of Goiás knows: that “the VLT project is still in the planning phase” and that, therefore, there was no possibility of directing contracts.

Regarding the claims about responding to requests for meetings and information made by businesspeople, the Government of Goiás stated that “all businesspeople who seek out the governor are referred by him to the appropriate agencies so that they can learn about projects and matters related to the government.” “The information is provided by those responsible for each area of ​​the government, always adhering to the principles of ethics, integrity, and transparency,” affirms the statement from the Government of Goiás, which Época practically ignored.

"It is not appropriate to fuel inferences drawn piecemeal from more than 30 hours of recordings, with the sole purpose of creating controversy and establishing connections between facts that do not match up," the statement continues. "Among all the recordings released, there is no evidence of any business deal or contract that actually benefited any person or company," the Government of Goiás clarifies finally.