Valdemar says it is "natural" for him to influence the PL bench

This Friday (10), after minister Flávio Dino, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), ordered the blocking of R$ 119 million in assets - equivalent to the values indicated in the parliamentary amendments -, the national president of the PL (Liberal Party), Valdemar da Costa Neto, stated that it was "natural" for the leader of the party to articulate and influence the bench politically.

"Party political action could only have criminal relevance if accompanied by concrete evidence of fraud, functional deviation, deliberate concealment or misappropriation of the execution of public expenditure. These elements are not minimally demonstrated", says Valdemar's defense in a note forwarded to CNN Brasil.

In his decision, Dino pointed out that Valdemar had used employees of the Chamber of Deputies to direct funds for at least 21 parliamentary amendments in a hidden manner, through fraudulent records.

According to the investigation, such records were based on the manipulation of documents and budget systems, including the names of real deputies. In this way, requests for amendments were passed on to the ministries with a legal appearance.

"The forwarding directed these amendments by falsely allocating federal deputies as "requesters" of the nominations, in order to give an air of legality to the nominations formalized according to the guidelines of a non-parliamentary", mentions Dino's decision.

According to Valdemar's lawyers, the decision is based on "fragile premises, subjective inferences and an undue criminalization of party political activity", denying any crime.

"The defense also highlights the fact that the Attorney General's Office was against the enactment of precautionary measures. Even so, serious restrictions were imposed based on assumptions without any individual demonstration of intent, fraud, misuse of purpose or conscious participation in any crime, in addition to it being clear in the decision that there was, with due respect, no personal advantage for Valdemar Costa Neto."

Despite the allegation that there was no fraud or misuse of purpose, the PF (Federal Police) maintains that different deputies were registered as requesting the amendments, although the indications had, in practice, come from Valdemar.

Investigators are investigating whether these parliamentarians were aware of the procedure, joined the alleged scheme or had their names used without direct participation. The suspicions investigated include the crimes of embezzlement, embezzlement and criminal association.

CNN Brasil questioned Valdemar about the Federal Police's conclusion that he had indicated amendments even without holding a mandate.

"No [I indicated], when we have small cities that do not have representation in Brasília, the party leader is the one who does", he declared.

Flávio Dino orders an investigation into Valdemar Costa Neto for irregular amendments | BEHIND THE SCENES CNN

Source: CNN