Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), a presidential candidate, allocated an earmark of R$ 199,999.79 in November 2023 to a sports project in Rio de Janeiro after a request from Robson Calixto, known as Peixe, a militiaman convicted by Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) for his role in the assassination of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco. The negotiation appears in WhatsApp messages seized by the Federal Police and obtained by news site g1. The case was first reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí.
The go-between was Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, a parliamentary secretary in Bolsonaro's Senate office whom the Federal Police describes as Peixe's "direct interlocutor". In messages translated from Portuguese, the militiaman wrote on October 24, 2023: "Amiga, check with our Senator if he can help us". She replied: "Send me the request, my friend. An email or an official letter". Peixe then sent document "Ofício nº 002_2023".
Two days later, the aide asked whether Peixe still had access to Chiquinho Brazão, then a federal deputy, brother of Domingos Brazão, then a counselor at the Rio state audit court. Both brothers were later convicted by the STF as the masterminds of the murder. "We have an event. You come too, and you can press the request with the senator", she wrote, sending an invitation to a ceremony delivering 396 ballistic vests to the Rio military police. According to the Federal Police, the invitation, which extended to Peixe, offered a chance to press the funding request with Bolsonaro in person.
On November 6, Peixe insisted: "Good morning, friend, don't forget the IFOP, see if the Senator can come through for us, so our project does not end". "Leave it to me", she answered. Days later, the earmark was granted. Bolsonaro transferred the funds to the Ministry of Sport, which signed an agreement with the Instituto de Formação Profissional José Carlos Procópio (IFOP), a vocational institute in Taquara, in western Rio, to run "Jogadores do Futuro", a project for children. In January 2024, according to the police, the aide asked Peixe for favors, including four tickets to Rio's carnival champions' parade: "I'm bugging you again hehe, could you get 4 tickets for the champions' parade in the Arpoador box?".
Signs of diversion and the defense
A 2025 technical report by the federal audit court (TCU) found signs that the money was diverted. The company hired by IFOP to coordinate the sports training was Romulo Alves, a one-lawyer firm. The court wrote that the contract had "no relation to the coordination of a sports activities project" and that "the person responsible for the company [...] is the president of IFOP itself, the contracting entity". The Federal Police also found signs that the funds were diverted.
Bolsonaro's office denied any wrongdoing. It said the earmark "was allocated within current legislation" and that the transfers followed technical criteria from the Ministry of Sport, according to Folha de S.Paulo.
"The executing entity presented invoices for the materials acquired and returned the unused funds. Responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not with the lawmaker. Any irregularities must be investigated by the oversight bodies, as the law determines."
Peixe was sentenced by the STF in February to 9 years in prison and the loss of his retired military police post. The court found he was the link between the gunmen and the Brazão brothers, each sentenced to 76 years and 3 months. Marielle Franco, a left-wing councilwoman, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were shot dead in Rio in March 2018. Militias, armed groups with roots in police forces, control territory in western Rio.
The disclosure comes less than two weeks before the first round of the presidential election on October 4, in which Bolsonaro challenges President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His office says any irregularities are a matter for oversight bodies. The messages came from the Federal Police investigation into the Marielle case, whose records were accessed by g1 and Folha.