RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Rio de Janeiro state police on Tuesday arrested outgoing mayor Marcelo Crivella in connection with an alleged bribe scheme, yet another show of political unrest in Brazil’s postcard city.
Seized material, phone records, financial intelligence reports and employee testimonials “revealed the existence of a well-structured and complex criminal organization led by Crivella and operating within City Hall since 2017,” said a statement from the Rio prosecutor’s office. .
The evangelical bishop turned politician will leave office on January 1 after losing a reelection bid to his predecessor, Eduardo Paes, in a landslide. The defeat came despite the support of President Jair Bolsonaro, who draws widespread support from evangelical congregations.
Crivella, 63, was an unlikely leader for the famed libertine city, but in 2016 he surfed a wave of conservative support prompted by a large-scale corruption investigation into election victory. During his tenure, he has made headlines by breaking with tradition and moving away from the widely popular Carnival parties.
Police officers arrived at Crivella’s house at 6 a.m., local TV footage showed. In September, they visited the mayor’s home and office to retrieve documents related to the probe.
Crivella told reporters upon his arrival at the Rio police station on Tuesday that his arrest is unfair. He also linked it to his willingness to fight corporate interests and lobbyists.
“I am the mayor who has fought most against corruption in Rio de Janeiro,” Crivella said as he walked into police headquarters.
Investigations earlier this year showed that Crivella had close ties with Rafael Alves, a businessman who was also arrested on Tuesday.
Investigators claimed that Alves had decided which companies would win contracts and promised to award them in exchange for payments. Alves never held any official position, but his brother was the head of the town’s tourist office and he regularly met with Crivella.
Prosecutors charged Crivella, Alves and five other individuals with allegations, including corruption, defrauding public contracts, misappropriating funds and money laundering, according to the statement.
Jorge Felippe, the president of the Rio City Council, will take office while Crivella is in prison. Councilor Fernando MacDowell died of a heart attack in 2018.
Mayor-elect Paes wrote on Twitter that he was in touch with Felippe and had asked him to mobilize city officials and ensure a smooth transition. He called on health workers in the city’s network to continue to help the population during the pandemic.
After the peak of the pandemic, Crivella introduced a step-by-step strategy to reopen the economy. Health experts at the time welcomed the gradual approach, but feared he would implement it too soon.
Earlier this month, the city’s seven-day average of confirmed cases rose to its highest level since June. It has since faded, but according to official data, the number of hospital admissions in the city remains high.
At one point during the pandemic, municipal employees were filmed hanging out outside hospitals derailing local media interviews with relatives of COVID-19 patients.
Crivella has repeatedly said during his reelection campaign that Paes, who was mayor when Rio hosted the 2016 Olympics, would be jailed if elected over other investigations.
Crivella has faced no allegations of corruption in his government’s pandemic response. However, Rio’s governor Wilson Witzel has been banned from office since August, when one of Brazil’s highest courts linked him to irregularities in healthcare spending to combat COVID-19.
Witzel is also fighting impeachment lawsuits that could give his job to another person under investigation, Deputy Governor Cláudio Castro.
Corruption investigations in recent years have led to the imprisonment of five former Rio governors. One of them remains behind bars.
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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo. David Biller, Associated Press writer, contributed from Rio de Janeiro.