Corrupt tax inspector confesses everything and asks for protection.
Tax inspector Luis Alexandre Cardoso Magalhães, one of those arrested in the operation investigating a corruption scheme in the Finance Department of the city of São Paulo during the administration of Mayor Gilberto Kassab, decided to cooperate and reached a plea bargain agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the General Ombudsman of the Municipality; Magalhães will also be included in a witness protection program; the scheme, which had already been the subject of previous complaints, had been shelved at the request of the then Secretary of Finance, Mauro Ricardo, appointed to the position by José Serra.
247 - Luis Alexandre Cardoso Magalhães, one of the tax inspectors arrested in the operation investigating a corruption scheme in the Finance Department of the city of São Paulo during the administration of Mayor Gilberto Kassab, has reached a plea bargain agreement with the Public Prosecutor's Office and the General Inspectorate of the Municipality. Magalhães will request to be included in a witness protection program this Monday (4). The other three arrested in the police operation, Carlos Augusto di Lallo do Amaral, Eduardo Horle Barcellos and Ronilson Bezerra Rodrigues, had their temporary arrests extended until Friday (8) and there is a possibility that they will also be granted the benefit of a plea bargain.
According to those responsible for the investigation, the expectation is that Magalhães will point out others involved in the fraud and provide more details about the corruption scheme, where the amounts of the Service Tax (ISS) were reduced in exchange for the payment of bribes to public servants. The request for the plea bargain agreement was reportedly made by the tax inspector himself.
According to the newspaper Estado de São Paulo, one of the main witnesses is Vanessa Carolina de Alcântara, Magalhães' former lover. She had intercepted phone conversations where she threatened to expose the scheme if the child support payment of R$ 700,00 for their nine-month-old son, whom she had while they were together, was not reviewed. In the wiretapped conversations, Vanessa allegedly mentioned the names of 14 people, all linked to the Municipal Finance Department.
With the arrest of the tax inspector, other names came to light during the investigations. The former technical advisor to the Municipal Secretariat of Governmental Relations, Fábio Camargo Remesso – who was dismissed this Saturday – and the auditor Amilcar José Cançado Lemos, identified as the mastermind of the scheme that allegedly defrauded public coffers of approximately R$ 500 million. Lemos is considered by those arrested to be the author of several anonymous letters addressed to the Finance Secretariat throughout last year. At the time, the then-secretary Mauro Ricardo requested the case be closed.