Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right wing PL party's candidate in Brazil's presidential race, earmarked a congressional budget amendment of R$ 199,999.79, funds lawmakers direct to local projects, for a sports scheme in Rio de Janeiro in November 2023. Federal Police findings show the money was negotiated over WhatsApp between a militia member, part of the armed groups often run by current and former police officers that control Rio neighborhoods, and an aide in his Senate office. The request came from Robson Calixto, known as Peixe, whom the Supreme Federal Tribunal sentenced in February to 9 years in prison for his role in the 2018 assassination of councilwoman Marielle Franco, killed alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes.
The go-between was Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, a parliamentary secretary in Bolsonaro's Senate office. Police describe her as Peixe's "direct contact" there. The messages were seized in 2024 from the militia leader's phone, once he came under investigation for the killing, and are part of a sealed inquiry authorized by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes into suspected diversion of amendment money sent to organizations tied to the Brazão brothers, also convicted in the case. Prosecutors say Peixe was the link between the gunmen and the men who ordered the killing: brothers Domingos, a former Rio state audit court counselor, and Chiquinho Brazão, a former federal congressman. The conversations were reported first by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí, and confirmed by Poder360, Globo's g1 portal and CNN.
The messages
The exchange began on October 24, 2023. "Friend, check with our senator if he can help us," Peixe wrote. Maria de Fátima replied: "Send the request, my friend. An email or an official letter." The militia member then sent a document titled "Official Letter No. 002_2023" and asked whether the senator could "help us with something" during a Brasilia visit planned for November.
Two days later, the aide asked whether Peixe was still with congressman Chiquinho Brazão. "We have an event. You're coming too, and you reinforce the request with the senator," she wrote, then sent an invitation for Brazão to a ceremony delivering 396 ballistic vests to Rio's military police. In the police assessment, the invitation, "extendable to Robson", would be an occasion where "the request for funds could be personally pressed" with Bolsonaro. On November 6, Peixe insisted: "Good morning, friend, don't forget the IFOP, see if the senator can favor us, so our project doesn't end." The reply: "Leave it to me." Days later, the amendment was granted. On the militia member's phone, the aide's contact was saved as "Fafá Flavio Bolsonaro". In January 2024, she asked him for a "favor": four tickets to the Champions Parade samba event in the Arpoador box.
Audit findings and the defense
The money went to the Ministry of Sport, which signed an agreement with the Jose Carlos Procópio Professional Training Institute (IFOP) for a project called "Jogadores do Futuro" (Players of the Future) serving children in Taquara, a neighborhood in western Rio. A 2025 technical report by the TCU, the federal audit court, found signs that public money was diverted. According to the court, the company hired to run the sports activities "consists of 'legal services' and has no connection whatsoever with the coordination of sports activities", and the person responsible for it "is the president of the IFOP itself", the contracting entity. Police are also investigating about R$ 400,000 sent to the municipality of Barra do Piraí, in Rio state. The total transferred by amendment to an organization under investigation would be R$ 599,128, CNN reported.
In a statement, Bolsonaro's defense said the amendment "was allocated under current legislation and the technical criteria of the Ministry of Sport". The statement said "the executing entity presented invoices for the materials purchased and returned the unused amounts", and that "responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not the lawmaker". Lawyer Tracy Reinaldet, who represents the candidate, told Poder360 the transfer did not use the automatic spending track known as "Pix amendments" and was subject to oversight by the Ministry of Sport and the TCU. The inquiry remains under seal at the Supreme Court. The first round of the presidential election is 11 days away, on October 4, and this week's polls, by AtlasIntel and Quaest, show Bolsonaro tied with President Lula in a runoff.