Brazil's Bolsonaro denies illegal acts with seized jewelry

[Judi Lynn]

By Carla Bridi?|?AP
March 4, 2023 at 5:46 p.m. EST

BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro said Saturday that he’d done nothing illegal following reports that he tried to bring jewelry worth more than $3 million into the country in 2021 without declaring it to authorities.

The jewelry - a set of earrings, a necklace, a ring and a watch of the Swiss brand Chopard - had been given as a gift to Bolosonaro by the Saudi Arabian government when he was in office, according to a report Friday in the O Estado de São Paulo newspaper.

The set was found in luggage belonging to an adviser to Bolsonaro’s mines and energy minister in São Paulo’s international airport, according to the newspaper. The minister had visited Saudi Arabia after attending a 2021 Middle East summit.

. . .

Investigators will now see if Bolsonaro was trying to get the jewelry secretly into Brazil in order to avoid taxes or to prevent it going into the presidency’s public collection. If it was put in the public collection, he wouldn’t have been able to take it with him when he left office.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/brazil-saudi-arabia-jewelry-airport/2023/03/04/773a70dc-bade-11ed-b0df-8ca14de679ad_story.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bolsonaro denies 'illegal acts' in bringing Saudi jewels to Brazil

Saturday, 04 Mar 2023 11:26 PM MYT

SAO PAULO, March 4 — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday denied committing “illegal acts” after local media reported he tried to bring into his country jewellery that the Saudi government allegedly gifted to him and his wife, according to CNN Brasil.

“I’m being accused of a gift I neither asked for nor received,” CNN quoted the former far-right leader as saying in an interview. “There is no illegality on my part. I never committed illegal acts.”

His remarks came as newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo on Friday reported Bolsonaro had illegally tried to bring to Brazil a jewelry set consisting of a diamond necklace, ring, watch and earrings gifted to him and former first lady Michelle by the Saudi government.

. . .

Agents at the Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo seized the jewellery as people must declare any goods worth more than US$1,000 (RM4,475) when they enter Brazil, the newspaper said, adding that the Bolsonaro administration unsuccessfully tried to recover the jewellery multiple times through government officials.

More:
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2023/03/04/bolsonaro-denies-illegal-acts-in-bringing-saudi-jewels-to-brazil/58003

[Lovie777]

2. These religious fanatics sure do gaslight a whole lot................

[Judi Lynn]

4. Clearly they don't believe there is a gawd who will happily "light them up" just for fun!

We can always hope!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Brazil's Bolsonaro faces probes over Saudi jewels

Tuesday, 07 Mar 2023 8:54 AM MYT

BRASILIA, March7 ― Brazil's justice minister asked federal police yesterday to investigate reports ex-president Jair Bolsonaro tried to illegally import jewellery worth US$3.2 million (RM14.3 million) gifted by Saudi Arabia, as tax officials probe a second present of jewels.

The far-right former president has faced mounting questions over the jewels since newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported Friday that customs officers blocked an aide to his former mines and energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, from bringing them into Brazil without paying the required import duty after an official trip in October 2021.

According to the newspaper, Bolsonaro administration officials intervened at least eight times to try to convince customs officers to release the diamond jewels ― a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of earrings from Swiss luxury house Chopard ― that had been given to the president's wife.

. . .

The scandal deepened yesterday when Brazil's tax agency said it had opened its own investigation over reports Albuquerque's delegation entered the country with a second, previously undetected set of jewels, also a gift from the Saudi government.

Albuquerque mentioned the second set of jewels ― a watch and a pen, also made by Chopard ― in an interview with Estado de Sao Paulo.

More:
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2023/03/07/brazils-bolsonaro-faces-probes-over-saudi-jewels/58341