The former president of Rioprevidência, Deivis Marcon Antunes, was arrested this Tuesday (3) while traveling through Itatiaia, in the south of Rio de Janeiro. He had just disembarked in São Paulo and was heading to Rio de Janeiro in a rented car, when he was approached by agents from the Federal Highway Police (PRF) and the Federal Police (PF).
Deivis Marcon should arrive this afternoon at the Federal Police Superintendency, in the Port Zone of Rio. The arrest is part of the second phase of the “Paper Boats” operation, which also serves two other arrest warrants and nine search and seizure warrants at addresses linked to Rioprevidência and in Santa Catarina.
The investigation investigates suspicions of fraudulent management, misappropriation of resources and corruption in the pension fund of Rio state employees, initiated after investments by the municipality in Banco Master. The amount investigated by the PF is around R$970 million. Among the suspicions are manipulation of digital evidence, removal of documents from the former president’s apartment and transfer of luxury vehicles to third parties.
The arrest warrants were issued by the 6th Federal Criminal Court of Rio de Janeiro, which indicated a concrete risk of destroying evidence and obstructing investigations. The operation began on January 23, when Deivis Marcon was on vacation in the United States, and also affected the fund’s former investment director, Eucherio Rodrigues, and former interim director Pedro Pinheiro Guerra Leal.
At the end of last year, the State Court of Auditors had already recommended the removal of Deivis Marcon from the presidency of Rioprevidência, while investigating irregularities in financial investments at Banco Master, which totaled more than R$2.6 billion. The State Attorney General’s Office stated that the fund has a “huge credit” with the bank, resulting from operations that should not have occurred, while the former president claimed that the authority was misled by the financial group and was studying legal measures against Banco Master, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Social Security.
