The writer Augusto Cury, running for president of Brazil for the small Avante party and now third in the polls, left at least three companies registered in Florida, in the United States, out of the asset declaration he filed with Brazil's electoral authorities, along with two firms based in Brazil. The disclosure came from Folha de S.Paulo on Saturday, September 5, one month before the first round of the presidential election.
Cury declared the largest fortune in the race, R$ 242.3 million. According to the newspaper, the filing is made up mainly of receivables from family companies and equity stakes. In a statement issued through his staff, the candidate said his wealth was "built lawfully" and that any inconsistencies in the declaration will be corrected.
The Florida records
According to Folha, Cury has five registrations with the Division of Corporations of Florida's Department of State, the state's equivalent of a commercial registry. Two of the companies appear in his filing to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which makes every candidate's assets public: Intelligence School, incorporated in 2014, and Love Story Josefina, created in 2017 and renamed Love Story Investments in 2021. Left out were Cury Academia Comportamental, Contemplare Investments and Free Mind Publish, all opened between 2021 and 2024, and all paid this year the state fees required to remain active.
Florida's registry is public but thin: it lists who is authorized to act for each company, without stating each partner's stake or the capital invested. In the three omitted firms, Cury appears as an authorized member, and in one of them as the only one. His Brazilian filing is also public, which allowed the newspaper to compare the two records. Intelligence School, one of the declared companies, bought and sold at least four properties in Orlando, a Florida city where Brazilian buyers have long been active in the housing market.
One month before the vote
The report lands as Cury consolidates his third-place standing. In a Datafolha poll released on September 3, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT), who is seeking reelection, had 38% of voter intentions, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) had 33% and Cury had 8%. Folha's Três Poderes column called Cury the winner of the week. He took part in the first presidential debate, broadcast by the Band network on August 23, which Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro skipped.