Carlos Augusto César (PSB), known as Cafu, vice mayor of Hortlandia in the interior of São Paulo, was arrested this Wednesday (12th) in a PF (Federal Police) investigation into fraud in a tender to purchase educational materials. His defense attorneys would not comment on the case and said they were still analyzing the process.
Mr. Cafu’s arrest took place in the morning. He was one of the targets of Operation Coffee Break, launched by the PF with support from the CGU (Commonwealth Comptroller General). In addition to the city of Ortlandia, the survey also covers the city of Sumare (SP).
However, the study was also carried out in other municipalities of São Paulo and Paraná as well as in the Federal District.
Six arrest warrants have been issued for the persons being investigated. A further 50 search and seizure warrants were executed during the operation, including one against President Lula’s former daughter-in-law, Carla Ariane Trindade. She was married to the president’s son Marcos Claudio Lula da Silva.
Kara is suspected of trying to free up resources from the FNDE (National Fund for Educational Development), an agency linked to the MEC (Ministry of Education), to Life Educational, the main investigator in the case.
Reporters reached out to the company via phone, text and email, but received no response.
Carla’s defense attorney said in a statement that Carla “has requested access to records and will only comment after being fully informed of the investigation.”
According to PF, Life benefited from millionaire contracts in the cities of Ortlandia and Sumare, and also paid for the president’s former daughter-in-law to travel to Brasilia in search of new resource releases.
In the municipality of Sumare (SP) alone, the PF found that approximately R$52 million was transferred to the company between 2021 and 2023 (partly under the Jair Bolsonaro government and partly under the Lula government). Meanwhile, the amount received by Life from Holtlandia totaled R$21 million during the same period.
The company’s share capital was R$300,000 until 2022, rising to R$20 million in the same year and R$24 million in 2023. Last year, it amounted to R$34 million.
The sheet Most of the alleged contracts by PF were found to involve the purchase of textbooks published by the company and computer systems for public education.
Life began these activities only in 2022, when the company changed its purpose with Jucesp (state commerce commission) to include publishing and book wholesale distribution operations, and the development of programs and other electronic systems.
One of the targets of the search and seizure in São Paulo, the PF seized R$2.1 million in cash.
“The investigation uncovered evidence of crimes against the government, including bid fraud, active and passive corruption, overbilling and influence peddling,” the inspector general’s office said in a statement.
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