Karina Ferreira da Gama, the producer of "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro, bought a hybrid BYD Song Plus SUV for R$ 102,190, paid entirely in cash. The purchase took place on January 13, 2025 at the BYD Dahruj dealership in São Paulo and was reported to Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, because it was settled with "total amounts in cash", according to G1. The detail appears in a decision by Supreme Federal Court Justice Flávio Dino authorizing Operation Make Up, launched Thursday morning (10) by the Federal Police and the CGU, the federal audit office.
Cash payments above R$ 50,000 in the financial system and R$ 100,000 at notaries are automatically reported to Coaf even without evidence of a crime, because large amounts of physical money are hard to trace. The decision also records that the vehicle, a 2025-model Song Plus 1.5 16V automatic hybrid, was listed at R$ 184,858 on the Fipe reference price table, R$ 82,668 above the price paid. The document does not explain the gap between the two figures.
A Coaf report on its own does not make the purchase criminal. Gama is an investigated party in the inquiry, not a defendant, and the presumption of innocence applies. Thursday's operation carried no arrest warrants: police served 49 search and seizure orders in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. Gama and federal congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, are among the targets. The Go Up production company itself is not named in the warrants; two entities owned by Gama, the Instituto Conhecimento Brasil (ICB) and the ANC, were searched, according to Agência Brasil. Police are investigating embezzlement (peculato), document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding crimes.
Timeline of the case
The inquiry examines the suspected diversion of congressional earmarks, budget funds that Brazilian lawmakers direct to specific projects. A CGU audit found in May a suspected diversion of a R$ 2 million earmark sponsored by Frias to entities tied to Gama, including unproven expenses. According to Dino's decision, the ICB, which Gama chairs, received earmark money sponsored by Frias, and Go Up received funds from people and companies in the investigated core, which could suggest "possible patrimonial and operational integration" with entities that benefited from earmarks. Police say they identified flows of hundreds of millions of reais among companies tied to the scheme, with attempts to hide the diversions until July this year. In parallel, the Supreme Court is examining, under Justice André Mendonça as part of the Banco Master case, R$ 61 million transferred by banker Daniel Vorcaro to the film at the request of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
What each side says
In May, Frias sent a filing to the Supreme Court denying that earmarks sent to nonprofits tied to the producer went to "any film production". Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, cited in the parallel inquiry, denied arranging any improper benefit with Vorcaro and said the funds transferred to the film were entirely private. People named in the operation had not responded to requests for comment from G1 and Agência Brasil by publication time.
The inquiry remains with Dino at the Supreme Court. The next steps are the analysis of the material seized in Thursday's searches by the Federal Police and the CGU and, eventually, a decision by the Prosecutor General on whether to file charges. No date has been set for that stage.