Verissimo: nobody imagines that Geddel simply collects banknotes.

247 - Writer and columnist Luis Fernando Verissimo stated this Sunday, the 10th, that the R$ 51 million found by the Federal Police in the Salvador apartment linked to former minister Geddel Vieira Lima caused "astonishment" among Brazilians due to the sheer size of the amount. 

"The amount of money found in Salvador allowed us to get a glimpse of what we only knew from hearsay: the vast sums moved by national corruption, which existed, in our minds, only as cold and intangible numbers. We could imagine a pile of money accumulated by 40, or 400, thieves, but we resigned ourselves to never knowing it, so to speak, personally. And yet, there were 50 million of the billions of corruption, wrapped up, in plain sight, photographed, real (and dollar) money. An image for History," he says. 

Veríssimo explains that paper banknotes are losing their purpose worldwide, being replaced by electronic impulses and plastic cards. "But Brazilian corruption has a nostalgic attachment to banknotes. They say that Brazilians with accounts in Switzerland are known because they are the only ones who periodically ask to see their money and find out if it's safe. Here, it's still unknown who that suitcase with 500 reais that never reached its destination was for, but it was certainly someone who preferred banknotes for sentimental reasons," he states. 

"It's unknown where the huge sums of money from Salvador came from and where they went, but nobody considered the more generous possibility: that Geddel simply collects banknotes as a hobby. The explanation isn't corruption, it's nothing like what they're thinking. It's numismatics," says Verissimo.

Read in full The text by Luis Fernando Veríssimo.