The Brazilian Federal Police complied with arrest and search and seizure warrants in an investigation into deviations in contracts for the purchase of robotics kits with money from the National Education Development Fund.
Images show the apprehension of a safe with money from one of the targets of the investigation. He had at least R$ 4.4 million (US$ 884,000) and was found at an address in Maceió (Alagoas).
The Federal Police are investigating possible fraud that may have generated a loss of R$ 8.1 million.
The case first came up in a Folha article on acquisitions in municipalities in Alagoas, all signed with a company belonging to allies of Brazil's House Speaker, Arthur Lira.
The kits were purchased with resources, in part, from the budget rapporteur's billionaire amendments – at that time, during the Jair Bolsonaro government, Lira was responsible for controlling the distribution of part of that amount.
The company supplying the robotics kits is in the name of Roberta Lins Costa Melo and Edmundo Catunda, father of Maceió councilman João Catunda. The close relationship between the councilman and his father and Lira is public. Lira declared that he had "nothing to do with what is going on ".
Translated by Cassy Dias