A private forensic audit commissioned by GoUp Entertainment, the production company behind Dark Horse, a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, failed to trace the origin of funds transferred by the US-based investment vehicle Havengate Development to finance the movie. The finding was reported by the newspaper O Globo and relayed by Poder360 on Wednesday. According to reporter Eduardo Gonçalves, tracing that money trail is considered essential by Brazil's Federal Police as it investigates whether the film was used to divert funds.

The expert responsible for the assessment, Anisio Castelo Branco, president of the Instituto de Perícia Investigativa, told O Globo that he only reviewed funds actually spent by GoUp and had no authorization to audit the Havengate fund itself. 'I don't know how much was sent from Brazil to the US, or even if it was sent, because I'm not investigating the fund. I don't speak for the fund, I don't belong to Havengate,' he said.

'That information is outside our scope. We don't work with the Havengate fund, we have no contact with it. As for how the fund is capitalized, I don't know how much capital it has, whether it held only money from the film or R$ 100 million or R$ 1 billion. That's confidential information about the fund,' the expert told the newspaper.

The controversy around the film began in May, when the outlet Intercept Brasil published messages exchanged between presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for the PL party, and Daniel Vorcaro, then the owner of Banco Master, pointing to an agreement worth roughly R$ 134 million (about $25 million) to finance the production. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the payments allegedly moved through a Vorcaro-linked company called Entre Investimentos e Participações into Havengate, a fund based in Texas and controlled by Paulo Calixto, a lawyer for Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal deputy who currently lives in the United States. Federal Police documents indicate roughly R$ 61 million flowed through the fund toward the film, a figure Flávio eventually acknowledged receiving from Vorcaro after initially denying any financing from Banco Master.

Scrutiny over Eduardo Bolsonaro's expenses

Federal Police are examining whether part of the money channeled through Havengate covered personal expenses for Eduardo Bolsonaro during his time in the US. Eduardo denies receiving any money from Vorcaro through the investment fund, and Flávio maintains the funds were used entirely on the film. In May, when pressed by reporters, Flávio said he had asked both the production company and the fund to organize 'a transparent accounting, to everyone, of the expenses made in connection with this investment in the film, within 30 days.'

Despite that pledge, Folha reports that Flávio outsourced the disclosure to GoUp and did not follow through on the specific transparency commitment regarding the American fund. On August 20, the candidate said the Dark Horse case was a 'closed chapter' and that he no longer had any obligation to discuss the film's financing, since the accounting report commissioned by the producer had already leaked to the press. That report, however, is part of a separate inquiry into suspected misuse of congressional earmarks in the production and, according to O Globo, contains no information about how the money moved abroad, leaving the Federal Police's central question about the source of the funds unanswered.