Millions of euros worth of jewels confiscated from Bolsonaro – Corriere.it

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro It was alleged that he attempted to smuggle jewelry worth €3.2 million into Brazil. This was stated in an exclusive investigation conducted by the newspaper “ or State of Sao Paulo´ Where the incident reportedly occurred in October 2021 and the cargo, which was never made public, was seized by the authorities at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo.

The newspaper claims that these are jewels that the former president would have received gift by the Saudi authorities to his wife, Michelle. Among these were “a necklace, a ring, a watch and a pair of diamond earrings”.

The information about the confiscation was confirmed by the Minister of Social Communications, Paulo Pimenta, who posted pictures of the jewels on his personal Twitter page. “Bolsonaro illegally tried to wear a diamond necklace and earrings worth R$16.5 million. The gifts were delivered to Saudi Arabia at the end of 2021. Petrobras had just sold a refinery for $1.8 billion to a Saudi group,” the minister wrote.

The agents allegedly found the jewels in the backpack of a soldier who was returning to Brazil, and made sure that none of the items had been previously declared when going through customs, as required by law. Former Minister of Mines and Energy Bento Albuquerque had tried several times to recover the gems without success. The Brazilian newspaper says that in the last two months of Bolsonaro’s term, four attempts were made, including through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy, to retrieve the precious gift, all of which failed. The only way to get the jewelry back to Bolsonaro is to pay the mandatory import tax, 50 percent of the value of the thing in question, and a fine of 25 percent of the value for not declaring it in the first place. The other option is to declare them an “official gift to the President of the Republic”, but the newspaper makes it clear that in this way they will belong to the state of Brazil and not to Bolsonaros.

Bolsonaro has been in the United States, in Florida, since before the end of his term and risks arrest upon his return to Brazil. The former president is in fact the subject of an investigation linked to the January 8 attack on the seat of government in Brasilia, where he is being investigated for inciting a coup attempt.