Brazilian court freezes assets of January 8 riot funders

At the request of the Solicitor General’s Office, a federal court froze BRL 6.5 million (USD 1.2 million) in assets belonging to people and companies that subsidized buses transporting pro-Bolsonaro demonstrators to Brasília, Brazil’s federal capital. On January 8, protesters stormed and trashed the buildings housing all three branches of government.

The move will enable future lawsuits to order those people to pay for damages caused by the rioters.

The petition included 52 people and seven institutions, among them tourism and transportation companies. All legal entities involved are based outside Brasília, including three from the southern state of Paraná — where former President Jair Bolsonaro obtained 62 percent of the vote in the October 2022 runoff election.

The Solicitor General’s Office argues that, had the defendants not paid for the buses, such a large crowd of demonstrators would not have gathered, which resulted in the invasion and depredation of federal public buildings.

The list only includes people and companies that sponsored buses seized in a previous Supreme Court order by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to the Solicitor General’s Office, this ensures that the petition only includes defendants who participated in the January 8 attack.

The amount requested is based on early appraisals by the House and Senate that estimated BRL 6.5 million in damages. The Supreme Court and the presidential office are yet to publish their appraisals, which could lead to an increase in the value of compensatory damages.

Brazil’s main TV newscast aired a story on Wednesday showing that several bus companies drove demonstrators to Brasília from around the country, charging uncommonly cheap fares.

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