Public Prosecutor's Office files charges against former mayor for embezzling R$ 16 million.

Alagoas247 - The former mayor of the municipality of Piranhas, Mellina Torres Freitas (PMDB), and 12 other people, all former municipal employees during her administration, were indicted for a series of criminal offenses, including bid rigging, embezzlement, and conspiracy. The accusations were made by the (Gecoc) State Group for Combating Organized Crime of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of Alagoas. The group is accused of diverting R$ 15.930.029,33 from the public coffers of the municipality, located in the Sertão region of Alagoas, on the banks of the São Francisco River.

Unlike previous cases brought by the Public Prosecutor's Office against former mayors accused of similar crimes, this time the Gecoc (Special Group for Combating Organized Crime) did not carry out any operations to arrest the defendants, because Mellina Freitas, who is identified as the head of the gang, has a writ of habeas corpus issued by the Court of Justice of Alagoas that prevents her arrest. Mellina ran for re-election but lost and left her mayoral office last December. The 17th Criminal Court of the Capital is analyzing whether to issue arrest warrants against the other individuals involved.

In the indictment filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office, Mellina Torres Freitas is accused of "leading" a "criminal organization comprised of public officials who committed a multitude of criminal offenses within the public administration of the municipality of Piranhas to defraud public funds." The investigations by Gecoc (Special Group for Combating Organized Crime) began in December of last year, following the execution of search and seizure warrants in various municipal offices. 1.431 collected documents were analyzed, along with nine testimonies given to the Gecoc prosecutors and the Public Prosecutor's Office of that district.

Due to the irregularities pointed out by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the 13 defendants are accused of several separate crimes, such as embezzlement, embezzlement by theft, falsification of documents, forgery of private documents, use of forged documents, bid rigging, and conspiracy.

The companies

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the fraud at the Piranhas City Hall involved expenses and procedures for purchases and services allegedly carried out with the companies Arquitec – Arquitetura, Engenharia e Construção LTDA, Construtora Terra Nordeste LTDA, Construtora Confiança LTDA, Boa Terra Construções LTDA, Concreto Construções LTDA, Engenharq LTDA, Almeida Construções e Incorporações ET LTDA, Construções Ipanema LTDA – EPP and Cunha & Melo LTDA between the years 2009 and 2012.

However, during this period, the Public Prosecutor's Office (MPE) claims that 23 bidding processes and 385 payment processes were "deliberately manipulated," resulting in a loss of R$ 15.930.029,33. The partners of all the companies were questioned by Gecoc and denied any contracts with the city hall. João Medeiros Rocha, managing partner and legal representative of Arquitec, for example, when questioned by the MPE, stated that the company, "opened in 1998, provides services in the civil construction sector, focusing its activity on the construction of residences, especially under the 'Minha Casa, Minha Vida' program, and that it has never provided any services or carried out any works in the municipality of Piranhas," according to the MPE's press office.

According to the complaint, similar denials were also made by Sammy Mota de Vasconcelos, partner of Construtora Terra Nordeste LTDA-ME, Ricardo Edmundo Cintra Ezequiel, owner of Construtora Confiança LTDA, Amauri Ancelmo da Silva, legal representative of Boa Terra Construções LTDA, Alexandro de Klebs Brandão, partner of Concreto Construções LTDA, José Hugo Cardoso Ferro Júnior, owner of Engenharq LTDA, Omar Saldanha Malaquias de Almeida, owner of Almeida Construções e Incorporações ET LTDA, Gílson Filipe Duarte de Melo, businessman of Construções Ipanema LTDA – EPP and José Gílson Melo Cunha, partner and legal representative of Cunha & Melo LTDA.

How the frauds happened

In purchase orders and invoices seized by Gecoc, the Municipality justified a series of payments, which were detected as "illegal" by Gecoc, released for alleged services such as paving, sewer maintenance, dam cleaning, school and other public building renovations, square renovations, road repairs, construction of ramps and staircases, and maintenance of the municipality's electrical networks. Through fraudulent documents, explains the Public Prosecutor's Office, money that should have been used to purchase electrical, electronic, consumer, and construction materials was also diverted.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, to aggravate the illicit situation, some of the payment processes were established irregularly, since the commitment and liquidation stages were not fulfilled. This liquidation phase involves verifying the rights acquired by creditors through titles and documents proving the respective services rendered or products acquired.

“Considering the content of the aforementioned testimonies, it is clear and undeniable that the 385 payment processes related to the purchase orders issued and payments made by the municipality of Piranhas during the fiscal years of 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, all listed in the reports prepared by the company Tavares & Souza Contabilidade LTDA and by the Municipal Government of that state entity, were blatantly defrauded by the criminal organization led by the defendant Melina Torres Freitas, at the time mayor of Piranhas and authorizing officer of the expenses, so that its members could criminally appropriate public money intended for the payment of purchases and services contracted but not performed, to the profound detriment of the municipality, which, consequently, was deprived of actions aimed at improving the quality of life of its population,” says an excerpt from the Gecoc complaint.

Arrests were requested by Gecoc.

Along with the indictment, Gecoc requested the arrests of all those accused in the scheme identified in Piranhas. Until the 17th Court decides whether to issue the arrest warrants, the Public Prosecutor's Office informs that the names of the other defendants will not be released.

"If released, the defendants will cause serious disruption to the criminal investigation, one of the grounds authorizing their preventive detention, since, without restriction of their freedom of movement, they will be able to subvert the body of evidence, intimidate witnesses, the families of witnesses, or any other person willing to offer information about them, about the criminal organization to which they belong, or about the facts imputed to them," the prosecutors justified when requesting the arrests.

In the complaint, Gecoc requests the conviction of the former mayor on 385 counts of embezzlement, 23 counts of falsifying private documents, 23 counts of ideological falsehood, 28 counts of using false documents, 23 counts of bid rigging, and also for the crime of forming a criminal organization.