President’s son took Covaxin representative to meet with public bank

The plot of the Covaxin scandal continues to thicken. The government faces accusations of illegally pursuing the deal for the Indian-made vaccine despite multiple red flags regarding its efficacy and safety. 

Now, it has been revealed that the owner of Precisa Medicamentos — which served as the government’s middle-man in the negotiations — was taken to meet the president of Brazil’s National Development Bank (BDNES) on at least one occasion. And he was introduced by none other than Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, President Bolsonaro’s eldest son.

The meeting, on October 13, 2020, appears on the public schedule of BDNES head Gustavo Montezano. The official purpose for the encounter was to discuss investment in fiber-optic broadband. Precisa owner Francisco Maximiano controls a wide range of different companies, including one that operates internet networks. Speaking to weekly magazine Veja, BNDES said that “no investment in Mr. Maximiano’s company was made.”

While the meeting has no apparent relationship with vaccine purchases — and happened months before the government agreed to buy 20 million Covaxin doses — it heightens impressions that the Bolsonaro family has ties with the people representing the vaccine in Brazil.

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• #publicSpending