Brazil’s Federal Police say all seven members of the Mato Grosso State Court of Accounts (TCE-MT) received payments through an alleged parallel payroll in 2025. The findings were included in an investigation that led to the arrest of the court’s president, Sérgio Ricardo de Almeida, during Operation Tomada de Contas.

According to the police, the seven received a total of 48.5 million reais from the court’s accounts between January and October. The transparency portal listed 2.2 million reais in compensation for the same period. Investigators say the money was paid through separate bank orders and the court’s supplier-payment channel.

Sérgio Ricardo received 15.4 million reais during those ten months, the investigation says. Guilherme Maluf received 10.6 million reais, and José Carlos Novelli received 8.9 million reais. Alisson de Carvalho Alencar, who was a public accounts prosecutor at the time under investigation, received 8.1 million reais.

Supreme Court of Justice minister Og Fernandes, who authorized the police operation, ordered Maluf, Novelli and Alencar removed from their posts. The other three members named in the payment records were not subject to precautionary measures. Waldir Teis, who took over as court president after Sérgio Ricardo’s arrest, received 1.5 million reais, while Gonçalo Domingos de Campos Neto received 3.1 million and Antônio Joaquim Moraes Rodrigues Neto received 2.3 million, according to the investigation.

The police described the situation involving the three members who remain in office as “borderline” and said further investigation was needed, citing the scale of the payments rather than an absence of potentially unusual activity. Investigators said they intended to gather more evidence using measures that would be less intrusive or impose fewer restrictions on rights. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office requested that the three members’ banking secrecy be lifted.

Sérgio Ricardo’s lawyers called his preventive detention illegal, arguing that it was not supported by concrete evidence showing that detention was necessary. They also said federal prosecutors had opposed his detention as unnecessary, and that his position alone did not justify imprisonment. The lawyers said the case should follow due process and respect the presumption of innocence. The defenses of Maluf and Novelli could not be reached for comment.

In a statement, the TCE-MT said it would take the steps needed to comply with court orders and that its institutional activities would continue. The court did not respond to a later request for comment on the information in the investigation.

The operation began after an anonymous tip alleged that suppliers were paid only if they returned part of the money to a group led by the court president. The investigation also examines parliamentary amendments from the Mato Grosso state assembly recorded as coming from “party leaders,” without naming an author. Police said they identified the figures through the state transparency portal.

The court received 50 million reais in such amendments in 2025, including 39.1 million listed as “indemnities,” the same budget category used for the payments under investigation. In 2026, transfers total 62.4 million reais, of which 33.1 million is assigned to that category. Companies contracted by the court and cited in the investigation, including advertising agencies and an outsourced-services firm, received most of the amendment funds, police said. Investigators said the way the amendments entered the court’s budget requires further examination and did not accuse any specific state legislator of wrongdoing.

The operation involved six preventive arrest warrants and 26 search warrants, as well as measures to lift confidentiality protections and seize assets. Police said the alleged conduct under investigation could constitute crimes against public administration, money laundering and criminal organization.

Sources: Folha Mercado.