Robson Calixto da Fonseca, known as Peixe, a former aide to Domingos Brazão, once a member of Rio de Janeiro's state audit court, has been identified by Brazil's Federal Police as the broker of a 200,000-real congressional earmark from Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) to an NGO under investigation for suspected embezzlement. Peixe is serving a nine-year sentence for belonging to the criminal organization behind the murder of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco. The newspaper O Globo detailed his record on Friday. Earmarks, called emendas in Brazil, let lawmakers steer federal money to projects of their choice; Flávio, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a presidential candidate, sent his in November 2023 to the Instituto de Formação Profissional José Carlos Procópio (Ifop), for a children's sports project in Taquara, in western Rio.
The deal surfaced in WhatsApp messages seized from Peixe's phone during the investigation into the 2018 killings of Marielle and her driver, Anderson Gomes; the chats were first reported by the daily Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí. On October 24, 2023, Peixe wrote to Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, known as Fafá, a Senate staffer in Flávio's office whom the police describes as the militiaman's "direct interlocutor": "Amiga, vê com o nosso senador se consegue nos ajudar" (Friend, check with our senator if he can help us). Fafá asked for a formal request and, two days later, invited Peixe to an event the senator would attend, told him to bring then congressman Chiquinho Brazão and added, "You will go too and press the request with the senator." On November 6 Peixe wrote again: "Don't forget the Ifop, see if the senator can favor us." On November 29, 2023, an earmark of 199,999.79 reais went to the Sports Ministry, which passed the money to the Ifop under an agreement for the project Jogadores do Futuro, meant to buy soccer cleats for children. In January 2024, after the transfer, Fafá asked Peixe for four tickets to the carnival champions' parade in a VIP box, according to the police.
From the state legislature to the Marielle case
Peixe is a retired military police officer. He worked for Domingos Brazão in the Rio state legislature, the Alerj, and followed him to the state audit court, the TCE-RJ. Federal prosecutors describe him as an operator for the group: he managed irregular real estate deals and acted as a front man, or "laranja", for the Brazão brothers. In the plea bargain of Ronnie Lessa, the former officer who confessed to firing the shots that killed Marielle, Peixe is described as Domingos Brazão's "trusted man" and "do-it-all" aide, and is said to have obtained the HK MP5 submachine gun used in the crime, a version he denies. Tips to the Disque-Denúncia hotline in 2018, cited in a Federal Police report, named him as the man who collected extortion money for militias in the Taquara area. Rio's militias are paramilitary gangs, often led by police officers, that control territory and services in poor neighborhoods.
The Brazão brothers, convicted as the masterminds of the assassination, were arrested in March 2024. Peixe was arrested that May and tried in February by the First Panel of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which sentenced him to nine years in prison and stripped him of his police rank for armed criminal organization. Unlike the brothers, he was not convicted of the killings. In his vote, Justice Alexandre de Moraes wrote that Peixe handled clandestine housing projects, extortion, land fraud and "gatonet", the illegal resale of cable TV hookups.
Operation Emendatio and the defenses
The transfer is part of Operation Emendatio, launched by the Federal Police in July on Moraes's authorization to investigate, with the federal controller's office (CGU), suspected embezzlement, money laundering and criminal organization in earmarks routed to entities tied to the Brazão group. According to O Globo, which first revealed the inquiry into Flávio's earmark in May, entities flagged by Peixe to lawmakers received 268 million reais between 2020 and 2024. The Ifop has received 2 million reais in public money over its entire history: 200,000 from Flávio, 300,000 from congresswoman Chris Tonietto (PL) and 1.5 million from Chiquinho Brazão, released only in 2025, after his arrest. A 2025 audit by the federal accounts court (TCU) found that the company hired to run the sports project was a one-lawyer firm whose owner is the institute's own president, and parents of the children said the promised cleats never arrived. Neither Flávio nor Tonietto was targeted by search warrants in the operation.
Reached for comment, Flávio said in a statement published by Estado de S. Paulo that the earmark followed the law and that oversight belongs to the control bodies:
"The earmark was allocated within current legislation and the Sports Ministry's technical criteria. The executing entity presented invoices for the materials purchased and returned the unused funds. Responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not with the lawmaker. Any irregularities must be investigated by the control bodies, as the law determines."
The senator did not comment on his aide's chats with Peixe; Fafá and the militiaman's lawyers did not respond to reporters. The Ifop denies any relationship with Peixe or the Brazão brothers and says the money paid for soccer classes for children. Domingos Brazão's defense said it does not act in this case, and Chiquinho Brazão's said it had no knowledge of the inquiry. The investigation remains open at the STF, with no date set for completion. It is the second recent Federal Police inquiry to mention Flávio, after the case of banker Daniel Vorcaro and the film Dark Horse, and it carries political weight: he is running for president in October's election.