Former Federal Revenue Minister Julio Cesar Vieira Gómez, involved in the case of the release of jewelry given by Saudi Arabia to former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), was fired on the 25th by the CGU (Controller General of the Union).
According to what was published in the Official Gazette on Monday (1), the CGU adopted, as a basis, the final report of the open disciplinary process against the public servant which concluded that he had failed to fulfill the functional duties of the position. Under the decree, Gomez is also banned from holding federal public office for five years.
The former secretary confirmed, in a statement to the Federal Police, that he dealt directly with Bolsonaro regarding the release of goods seized at Guarulhos Airport customs (Greater Sao Paulo).
The report has not yet specified the position of Vieira Gomez’s defense on Monday (first). He said in previous demonstrations that he followed all legal directives and denied any attempt to interfere.
In 2023, Bound She revealed, based on reports submitted on condition of anonymity, that Bolsonaro and the former secretary spoke about the matter by phone on December 27, 2022, days before the then-president’s term ended.
The presence of contact represents the first indication of direct involvement by the then client in attempting to release the items.
The company’s former chief revenue officer said he spoke about the matter with Bolsonaro on two occasions. The first was an in-person meeting in the first half of December 2022, possibly at Palacio do Planalto. The second was the phone call on December 27th.
In the final report on the case, the Federal Police charged the former president on the basis of the diversion or attempted diversion of goods with a market value of 6.8 million Brazilian reals.
The first meeting with Bolsonaro, in which the jewelry issue was discussed, took place, according to the testimony of the former head of revenue, to present the credit of his administration as head of the tax authority.
“At the end of the meeting, the President of the Republic asked the declarant whether he was aware of any confiscations by the Federal Revenue Service as a result of a trip to Saudi Arabia,” reads the text of the statement made by the PF.
“The declarant replied that he did not know about it, but that he would look into it. (…) When he returned to the Federal Revenue Office, he asked an employee whom he did not remember to check whether there had indeed been a seizure, and of course the details of this seizure.”
After that, the former revenue chief says he passed the research results to Lieutenant Colonel Mauro Cid, who was then Bolsonaro’s head of applications assistance. He added: “There was no movement or initiative from anyone, not even from the announcing party, regarding this information in the following days.”
The second conversation between them was on December 27. “Julio Cesar stated that he received a phone call from Jair Bolsonaro on December 27, 2022 to thank him for his administration, and on that occasion, he asked the former president if he had information about the search he had requested days earlier on the seized jewelry. Julio Cesar reportedly told then-president Jair Bolsonaro that he had passed on the information to Mauro Cid,” the PF report states.
The National Police concluded that the former president committed crimes related to criminal groups (with a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years), money laundering (3 to 10 years), and embezzlement/seizure of public property (2 to 12 years).
Bolsonaro’s aides have also been charged, including former Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque and Mauro Cid, who signed a plea deal with police.