Former Minister Paulo Bernardo arrested in Operation Brazil Cost
Former minister Paulo Bernardo 
Former Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo was arrested preventively this morning (Jun. 23) in Brasília as part of Operation Brazil Cost, launched by the Federal Police as a development of Operation Car Wash.
According to a note released by the Federal Police, the former minister is being investigated for allegedly taking part in a scheme involving the payment of $29.5 million in kickbacks from contracts for information technology-related services directed at a number of civil servants at the Ministry of Planning, Budget, and Management, from 2010 to 2015.
The note also says there are reasons to believe that the ministry appointed an information technology company to manage the payday loans of federal officials with private banks, which are interested in this type of credit.
The probes have found that 70% of the amounts received by this company were funneled to people linked to key civil servants or public agents at the Planning Ministry through fictitious or simulated contracts. The former minister reportedly received over $2 million through one of these contracts.
Paulo Bernardo's lawyer Rodrigo Mudrovitsch confirmed the preventive detention and described his client's arrest as unjustified. “My client no longer occupies any position and was always willing to provide clarifications to the authorities,” he said.
Paulo Bernardo led the Planning Ministry under former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from March 2005 to January 2011. In the administration of suspended President Dilma Rousseff, he took the helm of the Ministry of Communications, where he served as ministry up to January 2015.
Brazil Cost
Operation Brazil Cost is a joint effort with the Federal Prosecution Service and the Federal Revenue Service. Federal Police are carrying out 14 searches, 40 bench arrests, and 11 preventive detentions in the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, and the Federal District, all of them issued by a federal criminal court in São Paulo.
The investigation began in December 2015, following a Supreme Court order to send the evidence gathered at stage 18 of Operation Car Wash, an operation dubbed Pixuleco 2, for further investigation in São Paulo.
The suspects may face charges of influence peddling, bribery, money laundering and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 2-12 years in prison.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira / Mayra Borges
Fonte: Former Minister Paulo Bernardo arrested in Operation Brazil Cost
