Brazil's Federal Police are investigating Leonardo Avalanche, national president of the PRTB party and running mate on Pablo Marçal's presidential ticket, on suspicion of diverting R$ 750,000 (about US$ 140,000) from the party's share of the public electoral fund during the 2024 municipal elections. The case was revealed on Tuesday by columnist Artur Rodrigues of UOL and also reported by Diário do Centro do Mundo. According to the investigation, the main beneficiaries were Avalanche himself and his relatives, who allegedly received part of the money through intermediary companies.
The inquiry began after an anonymous tip about a transfer from the party to the law firm of Samuel Alves de Azevedo, the PRTB's secretary-general. The firm received R$ 750,000 from the electoral fund, a taxpayer-financed pool that Brazilian parties use to pay for campaigns, in early September 2024. After obtaining bank records, investigators found that between that month and February 2025, R$ 501,000 flowed to accounts linked to Avalanche and his family through two companies, JFX Consultoria and Superstar Corporate Ltda., both suspected of taking part in the scheme.
According to the records examined by the Federal Police, the law firm transferred R$ 100,000 to Avalanche's wife, Ana Cláudia Ferreira de Faria Alves, who returned the money in three transactions in October 2024 and received R$ 150,000 from Superstar ten days later. The same company sent R$ 100,000 to Avalanche's son, who was 13 years old at the time. The teenager moved R$ 751,000 during the eight months covered by the court-ordered disclosure, including transfers to his own parents. Police also traced two payments of R$ 50,000 each, made by a company owned by Adevando Junior, then the PRTB's treasurer, to Avalanche's wife and son.
Investigators found signs that the companies were used to hide where the money came from and where it went. JFX Consultoria, created in April 2024, handled R$ 160,000 in transactions with the suspects. Superstar was registered at a residential street in Americanópolis, on the outskirts of São Paulo, while its partner at the time listed an address in Vilhena, in the state of Rondônia.
This is not Avalanche's first legal problem. According to O Globo, he is a defendant before São Paulo's electoral court on charges of political violence and criminal association, in a case under judicial seal. Prosecutors accuse him of rigging the internal election that put him in charge of the PRTB in 2024, using supposed party founders enrolled retroactively, and of making death threats against a party official. He denies all the charges.
On the electoral fund investigation, Avalanche denied wrongdoing in a statement and said he is cooperating. "I cannot comment on specific aspects of the case outside the court record," he said, adding that he will give testimony "at the appropriate procedural moment." He is expected to be questioned in the coming weeks. Samuel Alves, Superstar and Adevando Junior did not respond to requests for comment.