The Federal Police report that supported Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) in authorizing Thursday's operation against the producer of the film Dark Horse points to signs of a financial triangulation of at least R$ 6.1 million among companies and entities linked to businesswoman Karina da Gama. According to the document, cited by g1, the money left the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), an organization owned by Karina that runs Sao Paulo's free municipal wi-fi network under a R$ 157 million contract with city hall, moved through outsourced contractors and returned to another entity in her name, the culture-focused social organization Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC).

The two entities share the same address in the Jardins district of Sao Paulo, according to the justice's decision. To carry out the suspected triangulation, Karina would have used Complexsys Soluções Integradas and Fastfuture Tecnologias Emergentes, companies owned by the couple André Feldman and Débora Gomes Feldman that provided services under the wi-fi contract. The Federal Police also cites two other companies in the alleged scheme: Ultra IP Tecnologia e Serviços, owned by businessman William Silva Ferreira, which also received wi-fi funds, and Distribuidora de Produtos LMS.

"The ANC appears repeatedly as the recipient of funds from different companies financed by the ICB. (...) The movements described show strong signs of a return of public funds paid to the ICB to the sphere of availability of those responsible for the organization itself, with potential characterization of diversion and contours of money laundering," Dino wrote in the decision.

The investigation lists the transfers received by the ANC from companies paid by the ICB:

• Complexsys: R$ 2,626,949.69 and R$ 1,308,986.33;
• Ultra IP: R$ 1,336,201.50;
• Fastfuture: R$ 603,136.12;
• Distribuidora LMS: R$ 300,000.

The total cited by police reaches R$ 6,175,273.64.

The owners of the three companies were targets of search and seizure warrants on Thursday and are barred from leaving Brazil. According to the state-run Agência Brasil, the phase, named Operation Make Up, executed 49 STF-issued warrants in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceara and the Federal District. The force is investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding crimes, with diversions estimated by the authorities in the hundreds of millions of reais. According to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Dino also barred Congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, from leaving the country and lifted the secrecy of the inquiry, in which investigators suspect that at least R$ 750,000 transferred to the production company Go Up Entertainment during filming came from Frias's congressional budget amendments.

Background of the case

Dark Horse is a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro produced by Karina da Gama, with Frias as screenwriter and executive producer. In May, the website The Intercept published audio of a conversation from last November in which Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) asked banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master for money to finance the shoot; the senator denied any wrongdoing and said the funds given to the film were entirely private. The inquiry into the suspected diversion of congressional amendments is before the STF under Dino. In parallel, Justice André Mendonça examines the transfer of R$ 61 million from Vorcaro to the production.

What the parties say

In a statement, Karina da Gama's defense said it filed a constitutional complaint on criminal jurisdiction before the STF presidency on Thursday, a measure that "does not discuss the merits of the investigation". According to the lawyers, the businesswoman "was contributing spontaneously and voluntarily", answering the Federal Police's request last Friday and handing over more than 20,000 pages of documents, which they say proves her "good faith and procedural loyalty". Frias called the operation a "smokescreen" and denied irregularities, saying the R$ 2 million amendment under investigation funded a sports project and a digital literacy program.

Complexsys, owned by André Feldman, said that "the Federal Police operation will prove, once again, that the funds received by the company were used solely in the contract to maintain the wi-fi network in the city of Sao Paulo, with no link to the financing of the film production under investigation". The company added that "the independent expert examination, already attached to the police inquiries, also proves that there is no relationship between the company's contract and the producer Go UP". g1 and GloboNews contacted the lawyers of everyone involved and had received no reply from some of them.

Sao Paulo city hall, led by Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), said it rejects "any attempt to draw connections between municipal projects and programs and the film production about former president Jair Bolsonaro". The administration said the film received no municipal funds and that the cooperation agreement signed with the ICB has "no identified irregularity". The free wi-fi program remains in operation, with 3,200 installed access points and more than 760 million recorded connections, the statement said.

None of those named has been indicted: all are investigation targets and enjoy the presumption of innocence. The next defined step is the STF presidency's review of Karina's constitutional complaint, which will decide whether to uphold Dino's measures. The inquiry remains open under the justice, with no date set for its conclusion.