Brazil senator quits after underwear cash jackpot

Key ally to president suspended

ABrazilian lawmaker stepped down from his position representing President Jair Bolsonaro’s government and was suspended from the senate, after police searched his house and found cash inside the underwear he was wearing.

Federal police targeted Roraima state’s Senator Chico Rodrigues as part of a probe into the alleged misappropriation of Covid- 19 funds, according to the 90day suspension issued by Luis Roberto Barroso Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Money trail

Police initially found 10,000 reais ($ 1,780) and $ 6,000 inside a safe in Rodrigues’ house at which point the lawmaker asked if he could go to the bathroom, according to the police report, part of which is included in Barroso’s ruling. As Rodrigues walked away, a police officer noticed a large, rectangular bulge under the senator’s shorts.

“Found inside his underwear, near his buttocks, were stacks of money that totaled 15,000 reais ($ 2,675),’’ the report says.

Asked three times whether he had any additional cash stowed, the senator angrily shoved his hand into his underwear to retrieve more stacks of bills, which totaled 17,900 reais ($ 3,200).

A subsequent police search turned up another 250 reais ($ 45) from inside his underwear. There is video of that search, which Barroso wrote in his ruling he was declining to provide to the senate as it was “well within his ( Rodrigues’) intimate clothing” and could cause “greater discomfort.”

Barroso wrote that Rodrigues’ decision to hide the money indicated impropriety and had raised the possibility of decreeing preventative imprisonment.