A former head of intelligence at Brazil’s federal tax authority used his position to illegally access confidential information about ex-allies of former President Jair Bolsonaro, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo has reported.
Ricardo Pereira Feitosa, who served as coordinator-general of research and investigation at Brazil’s tax authority between May and September 2019, reportedly pulled up income tax records on businessman Paulo Marinho, Gustavo Bebianno (a member of Mr. Bolsonaro’s original cabinet), and former prosecutor Eduardo Gussem on three dates in July 2019, during the first year of the Bolsonaro government.
Mssrs. Marinho and Bebianno had supported Mr. Bolsonaro’s election bid in 2018 but broke with the former president early into his term. Mr. Bebianno briefly served as Mr. Bolsonaro’s secretary-general to the presidency, before being the first cabinet member to be axed in February 2019. He died of a heart attack aged 56 in March 2020.
Mr. Gussem, meanwhile, served as lead prosecutor for the state of Rio de Janeiro between 2017 and 2021, when the state prosecution service began investigating suspicious transactions in the accounts of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son, leading to an investigation into an illegal kickback scheme allegedly carried out when Flávio was a Rio state lawmaker.
Mr. Marinho is currently Flávio’s first substitute in the senate, but he endorsed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in last year’s election.
According to Folha, which had access to internal documents and spoke to sources with knowledge of the situation, Mr. Feitosa consulted and made copies of the three men’s tax returns for a number of different years, as well as those of Mr. Marinho’s wife, Adriana Marinho. He also combed through information regarding the three men in other confidential databases.
None of the three men were under investigation in June 2019, which means Mr. Feitosa had no official motive nor permission to access their tax records.
In a note to Folha, Mr. Feitosa’s lawyers said he committed no wrongdoing, did not leak confidential information, and always acted in line with his legal duty. Folha reports that an internal investigation is underway and Mr. Feitosa, who currently holds a position with customs in Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, could face disciplinary proceedings and be expelled from the public service.
This apparent attempt within the Bolsonaro administration to dig up dirt on potential foes would seem to echo the behavior of Donald Trump, who reportedly got the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to conduct invasive audits of some of his enemies’ tax records.
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