As tax authorities look into a second gift of jewels, Brazil’s justice minister requested federal police to look into claims that ex-president Jair Bolsonaro attempted to illegally import $3.2 million worth of jewelry given to him by Saudi Arabia.
Since the far-right newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo reported on Friday that customs officials prevented an aide to his former mines and energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, from bringing the jewels into Brazil without paying the required import duty after an official trip in October 2021, the former president has come under increasing scrutiny regarding the jewels.
The newspaper claims that representatives of the Bolsonaro administration intervened at least eight times to try to persuade customs officials to release the diamond jewelry that had been given to the president’s wife and included a necklace, a ring, a watch, and a pair of earrings from the Swiss luxury brand Chopard.
Bolsonaro disputes the accusations.
“They’re accusing me over a gift I neither requested nor received. There was no illegality on my part,” he told CNN Brasil on Saturday from the United States, where he has been living since two days before his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office on January 1.
The scandal got worse on Monday when Brazil’s tax agency announced that it had launched its own inquiry into claims that Albuquerque’s delegation had also brought another set of jewels into the country that had escaped detection, also a gift from the Saudi government.
In an interview with Estado de Sao Paulo, Albuquerque noted the second set of jewelry, which included a watch and a pen made by Chopard.
