Ethics committee to probe Bolsonaro jewelry scandal

Former President Jair Bolsonaro and his lawyer, Fabio Wajngarten. Photo: Valter Campanato/ABr

The Brazilian Presidential Ethics Committee is to investigate a former minister of the Jair Bolsonaro administration and two other people involved in a scandal involving the smuggling of jewelry presented to the former president by the Saudi government.

A public document shows an investigation was opened under the codename “BCLLAJ” – the initials of former Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, whose full name is Bento Costa Lima Leite de Albuquerque Júnior.

Mr. Albuquerque returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2021 with a case containing a necklace, a watch, a pair of earrings, and a ring, as well as a 30-centimeter gold horse sculpture.

Customs authorities at São Paulo-Guarulhos Airport spotted the case in the backpack of an aide to Mr. Albuquerque. The jewelry was not declared by the delegation as an official gift to the Brazilian government, which would make it government property. Nor were the valuable items declared to customs.

According to diplomatic correspondence obtained by journalism nonprofit Agência Pública, the jewelry was presented during a meeting in 2021 when Saudi officials invited Brazil to join OPEC Plus, an association of oil-producing countries. Brazil did not join the initiative.

Video footage from the final days of Mr. Bolsonaro’s term (December 29) shows a Navy sergeant and close aide to the then-president claiming that “nothing could be left” to the next government after the transition — a clear indication that the Bolsonaro administration did not intend for the gifts to be kept by the Brazilian state.

The investigation opened by the Presidential Ethics Committee does not include the Navy sergeant.

Separately, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad on Monday announced that he will return a golden jaguar gifted by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who attended a Brazil-Saudi Arabia business forum in São Paulo.