“Did the value of Pres Valdemar close?”: PF targets PL president

The dialogues were located during the first phase of Operation Transparency, launched in December 2025. The investigation investigates suspected irregularities in the use of resources from the secret budget.

Based on the elements gathered by the PF, Minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court, ordered the suspension of resources related to the amendments and the blocking of Valdemar's assets up to the limit of the value under investigation.

In the decision, Dino stated that the messages point to the “existence of an informal functional arrangement involving servers distributed across sectors of the Chamber of Deputies”.

According to the investigation, House employees exchanged spreadsheets and discussed adjustments in the benefiting municipalities, in the areas of application and in the values of the amendments. Valdemar’s name appears in conversations directly and also through the acronym “VCN”.

One of the dialogues analyzed by the PF involves Garigham Amarante Pinto, a lawyer who held a special position in the PL leadership in the Chamber. On August 25, 2025, he wrote to Mariângela that he believed that the party leader would “throw the 24 at Tourism”, in reference to R$24 million.

Shortly afterwards, Garigham reinforced his advice: "You can put in as much as you can. He's looking for Tourism."

The next day, he went back to look for his former advisor and asked: “Did you close the value of Pres Valdemar?” For the Federal Police, the message would be a direct reference to the president of the PL.

Mariângela replied that, “if you can exchange everything [for] tourism, great”. Garigham then sent a temporary list of municipalities and CNPJs, many of them associated with the tourism area.

When analyzing the material, Dino wrote: “Therefore, it is possible that this list is related to the R$ 24 million mentioned by GARIGHAM, which were supposedly indications from VALDEMAR COSTA NETO”.

The Federal Police also identified conversations in which servers reported difficulties in changing destinations already defined. According to the investigation, Valdemar would resist changes in indications, even when technical obstacles arose.

In another excerpt cited in the decision, the investigation states that “in at least one moment, it mentions that such indications would be supported by a promise of amounts coming from the Board of Directors' quota, which would indicate articulation at a higher level of the House's formal structures”.

Dino justified the suspension of the amendments as a measure to protect public money. According to him, the decision seeks to guarantee the “protection of public assets, administrative morality and the rules that govern public financial activity”.

Defense denies participation in scheme

Valdemar Costa Neto's defense stated that they received the decision with “surprise” and said that the minister was based on “fragile premises, subjective inferences and an undue criminalization of party political activity”.

Lawyers Marcelo Bessa and Thiago Fleury maintained that there are no elements that prove the PL president's conscious participation in any irregularity.

According to the defense, “there is no proof, or even evidence” that Valdemar joined a criminal scheme.

“It is natural and legitimate, in the democratic system, for a party president to dialogue with parliamentarians, defend programmatic priorities, articulate national and regional interests and influence politically on the bench”, stated the lawyers.

Origin of the investigation

Mariângela Fialek was one of the main targets of Operation Transparency. A former advisor to Arthur Lira, she worked in the Presidency of the Chamber during the deputy's administration.

The Federal Police suspect that she was involved in organizing and forwarding amendments linked to the secret budget.

According to investigators, Mariângela exercised control over “diverted indications of amendments arising from the secret budget for the benefit of a probable criminal organization focused on committing functional deviations and crimes against the public administration and the national financial system”.

Dino claims that Valdemar embezzled R$119 million from the secret budget and asks for asset blocking

Flávio Dino ordered the blocking of up to R$119 million in Valdemar Costa Neto's assets. The Federal Police suspect that the president of the PL used Chamber employees to direct amendments to the secret budget