Brazil's Federal Police executed 49 search and seizure warrants on Thursday against federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP) and Karina Ferreira da Gama, the producer of Dark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. Operation Make Up investigates the suspected diversion of public money through congressional earmarks, the budget amendments Brazilian lawmakers direct to projects of their choice. The warrants came from the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) and were executed in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ceará states and in the capital, Brasília.
Justice Flávio Dino authorized the operation and oversees the inquiry into suspected diversion of earmarked funds. According to the police, the public money reached nonprofit organizations through termos de fomento, a type of federal funding agreement. Frias wrote and executive-produced the film. According to BBC News Brasil, he is accused of transferring 2 million reais to Gama, who runs a social projects institute and, at the same time, the production company Go Up Entertainment, which made Dark Horse.
What the police allege
The investigation points to a criminal organization of public and private agents. In the police account, the money was routed to subcontracted companies without proof that the contracted services were delivered, with financial flows in the hundreds of millions of reais. "The attempts to disguise the diversions would have extended until July of this year," the force said in a statement. The crimes under investigation are embezzlement, document forgery, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding fraud.
Among the addresses searched were two entities tied to Gama, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC). Dino cited a concrete risk that evidence would be hidden or destroyed and imposed precautionary measures: the suspects are barred from leaving the country and from contacting one another, and their passports were ordered surrendered. His decision also notes that audits by the CGU, the federal comptroller's office, found problems from the moment the ICB was chosen to receive the money. The justice wrote:
"The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure designed to circulate resources among entities, companies and individuals linked to the investigated core, including reports of the use of companies based abroad, such as Go Up Entertainment LLC."
Reactions and a parallel inquiry
Frias answered in a video posted on social media on Thursday night. He called the operation a "smokescreen" timed to the election season and said the earmark under investigation paid for a sports and digital literacy project for children, with documents and receipts proving the spending was lawful. "They took my phone, my documents, my computer. Nobody was arrested. Of course not, because there is no arrest warrant against me or anyone else," he said. The deputy also said his lawyers cannot access the inquiry. In May, Frias had denied directing earmarks to the film and called the claim "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary support and defamatory." State outlet Agência Brasil said it had received no reply from his office and was still trying to reach Gama.
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the former president's son and a presidential candidate in October's election, commented on the operation during a YouTube livestream. He accused Dino of acting politically to hurt his campaign and insisted that "it was all perfectly in order, private investment in a private movie." The film's financing is also the subject of a separate STF inquiry under Justice André Mendonça, which examines whether the transfer of 61 million reais from banker Daniel Vorcaro to the film, at Flávio's request, was irregular. That case surfaced in May, when the news site The Intercept published audio of a conversation between the senator and Vorcaro from last November. Flávio denies any improper deal and says the film's funding was entirely private. Both inquiries remain open, and no arrests have been made.