Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Brazil’s presidential candidate who lost to incumbent leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arrived in Miami, U.S., on a private jet on Wednesday morning despite carrying cancelled passports.
Mr Bolsonaro arrived in the U.S. with his wife, Fernanda, and two daughters, Carolina and Luiza, days after the Supreme Court asked him to surrender his passports to pre-empt his flight and subsequent evasion of trial over alleged money laundering.
The embattled Brazilian politician on Monday said he had no intention of fleeing the country, insisting that it was only his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro’s personal opinion.
Mr Bolsonaro left Brazil on Tuesday night through the Tancredo Neves International Bridge in Misiones, a rural region that borders Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
He travelled to Argentina in a van at around 10:50 p.m. and subsequently departed for Ecuador and later the U.S., where President Donald Trump’s administration promised to issue him and his family members visas.
The Bolsonaros “travelled with valid travel documentation and without any legal impediment to entering the country,” Argentina’s immigration commission said in a statement.
Around 11:40 p.m., Mr Bolsonaro and his family boarded a Baires Fly private jet scheduled to fly to Guayaquil, Ecuador.
After the aircraft landed in Ecuador, it headed to Miami-Opa-locka Executive Airport, where Mr Bolsonaro arrived at around 9:25 a.m. on Wednesday.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes said Mr Bolsonaro was under investigation for his alleged role and complicity in a $1 billion money laundering scheme involving his friend, Willer Tomaz.
Mr Tomaz is a lawyer who has been linked to numerous betting companies suspected of serving as conduits for laundering illicit funds.
Both men denied wrongdoing, but Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes asked Mr Bolsonaro to surrender his passport until the investigations were concluded. The lawmaker was also asked to hand over his diplomatic passport.
Mr Bolsonaro’s father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment over an attempted coup but was serving his sentence at home due to his frail health.
