Brazil's Federal Police says the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), an organization led by "Dark Horse" producer Karina Ferreira da Gama, paid R$ 300,000 to an institute that operated inside a clothing store in Guarulhos, in greater São Paulo. The money came from R$ 2 million in emendas, parliamentary budget earmarks that federal deputy Mário Frias of the PL party of São Paulo directed to the organization. According to G1, police also suspect a R$ 645,000 transfer from the lawmaker to the film's producer.
The findings are part of Operation Make Up, launched on Thursday (10). Frias wrote and executive-produced "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro played by Jim Caviezel. With part of the earmarks, the ICB hired the Instituto Super Poder Educacional, which goes by Super Leitores, to run a project called "Projeto Jovens Empreendedores": a digital teaching kit, a platform and 12-month use licenses, budgeted at R$ 300,000.
Signs of collusion
Investigators found that a clothing store operates at the address Super Leitores listed as its headquarters. The person responsible for the institute, Pamella Cristiane Dias, said she "used a room in the establishment" and later moved to working from home. Police say this calls into question the firm's ability to deliver the service. A technical note from the force points to "evidence of collusion" among the companies that competed for the contract. Two bid R$ 200,000 and one R$ 230,000, below the R$ 300,000 charged by Super Leitores, and three competitors shared the same phone numbers and the same accountant in their registry records. The Federal Police also states that the hired company "has ties to the business group identified in this investigation". Metadata reviewed by the CGU, the federal audit office, showed that the payment invoice was issued minutes before the ICB created the budget sent to the bidding process. Karina's institute justified the choice by citing a wider scope of service, with 24 original video lessons.
The project website was only created in March 2026, 11 months after the payment invoice was issued. The ten video lessons posted drew seven views combined, according to the police report.
"Numbers that appear incompatible with the training of 250 multipliers and the assistance of 2,250 students," the Federal Police states.
Dias told the CGU she was not responsible for the platform. "However, she is listed as the holder of the domain registration linked to the platform," the police replied. Her Instagram profile presents her as editorial coordinator of HD Cultural, one of the companies that competed for the contract. G1 says it is still waiting for her response.
Travel ban and the deputy's defense
The operation served 49 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Federal Court in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. Justice Flávio Dino, who oversees the case, cited a concrete risk of evidence being hidden or destroyed, barred Frias and the other suspects from leaving Brazil and from contacting each other, and ordered their passports seized.
"The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure intended to circulate resources among entities, companies and individuals linked to the core under investigation, including reports of the use of companies based abroad, as is the case of Go Up Entertainment LLC," Dino wrote.
In a video posted on social media, Frias called the operation a "smoke screen". He denied wrongdoing, said he will cooperate and hand over all requested documents, and said he believes the case will be closed. In May he had already called the claim that he steered earmarks to the film "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary support and defamatory". The Federal Police is investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and bid-rigging crimes. Financial records cited by BBC News Brasil show movements of hundreds of millions of reais among the companies in the scheme. In a parallel inquiry at the same court, Justice André Mendonça is examining R$ 61 million that banker Daniel Vorcaro sent to the film at the request of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.