Businessman gives money to Bolsonaro’s allies while lobbying for mining on indigenous lands

The businessman Luis Felipe Belmonte, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro, gave money to people in the president’s close circle while lobbying for the approval of laws that allow for mining on indigenous lands, according to messages intercepted by the Federal Police (PF). The information is from the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. The messages were obtained by the Federal Police as part of an operation aimed at investigating the financing of antidemocratic acts in April 2020.

More than 2 million reais were distributed by Belmonte between Jair Renan, Bolsonaro’s son (R$10,000), the lawyer Karina Kufa, that represents the president (R$634,000), and the marketers Sergio Lima and Walter Bifulco, responsible for his reelection campaign (R$1.5 million). In one of the messages, when asked by his wife, Representative Paula Belmonte, about the expenses, the businessman said that “the goal was to come closer to the palace and make the ‘indigenous project’ viable,” says the report.