“Money in hand is a whirlwind” is a Portuguese expression which means that money is fleeting and can disappear as quickly as it arrives, if not managed carefully. This highlights how easily money can be spent or lost.
Paulinho da Viola immortalized the expression in music composed in a single day in 1975 for the soap opera “Pecado Capital” on TV Globo. The lyrics of the samba-canção say:
“Money in hand is a whirlwind
It’s a gust of wind!
In the life of a dreamer
From a dreamer!
How many people are wrong?
And falls out of bed
With all the illusion you dreamed of
And greatness collapses
When the loneliness is over
Has anyone ever said…”
Sóstenes Cavalcanti (RJ), leader of the PL in the House, almost fell out of bed when federal agents knocked on the door of his apartment in Brasilia yesterday and left with 430 thousand reais, in cash, found in a cabinet.
A storm has struck the life of the pastor who preaches fidelity to the plans of God and Bolsonaro, and it will soon dissipate. Where does so much money come from? Why keep such an immense fortune at home, subject to theft? Why didn’t you deposit it in a bank?
Stunned, Sósthène attempted unconvincing answers, some taken from a piece of paper given to him by an advisor. The money comes from the sale of a property in Minas Gerais, although Sóstenes lives in Rio and spends the week in Brasilia.
What type of property? He didn’t say. In which municipality of Minas is the property located? He didn’t say it either, because he didn’t remember it. Who did he sell the property to? Sosthene did not answer. He limited himself to repeating that he is a political persecutor because he defends conservative ideas.
As for the fact that he preferred to keep the money at home rather than deposit it in a bank, Sóstenes attributes it to the fact that he is a very busy man, who has no time for anything. It was “an oversight”, he apologized. A slip-up that will cost you dearly.
Finally, he spread a smokescreen by evoking Lulinha, Lula’s eldest son, who could be involved in the INSS money embezzlement scandal, and the wife of Minister Alexandre de Moraes who would have been a lawyer for the deceased Banco Master.
What do Lulinha and the lawyer have to do with Sóstenes’ mishap? Nothing. Moraes is not a judge in the Master case. Your wife can advocate for whoever she wants and charge what she wants. Lulinha has not yet been called to testify anywhere.
In addition to Sóstenes, the Galho Fraco operation also targeted deputy Carlos Jordy (PL-RJ). It aims to deepen the investigations underway for a year into the diversion of public resources from parliamentary quotas.
According to Flávio Dino, Minister of the Supreme Court, there is evidence of money laundering due to the splitting of withdrawals and deposits not exceeding the value of R$9,999 – a practice known as “smurfing” and adopted to avoid automatic alerts from the financial system.
We suspect the use of the parliamentary quota to cover expenses considered “non-existent”; WhatsApp conversations that deal with “outside” payments; use of “shell companies”; and “high” financial movements “without origin of resources” monitored by the Financial Activities Control Council.
In 2022, Sóstenes told the Electoral Court that he only had 4.9 thousand reais in his name in two current accounts: one with 4.3 thousand, the other with around 600. His life has improved since then. Politics works miracles.
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