Rodrigo Felinto Ibarra Epitácio Maia (born 12 June 1970) is a Brazilian politician and served as President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil between July 2016 and February 2021. Maia is the son of former

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Mayor Cesar Maia and he is in his fifth term as congressman. He was affiliated with the Democrats party, formerly PFL, from 1996 to 2021, when he was expelled for criticizing party president

ACM Neto ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

Biography

Rodrigo Maia was born in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, while his father, the former

Mayor Cesar Maia was living in exile, and was registered at the Brazilian consulate in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. Maia started economics at Candido Mendes University, but did not complete the course. In 1990, before starting a career in politics, he worked for Banco BMG and then . From 1997 to 1998, Maia was Municipal Secretary of the Mayor of

. In April 2012, he won the title of citizen of the

State of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil. It has the second largest economy of Brazil, with the largest being that of the state of São Paulo. The state, which has 8.2% of the Brazilian population, is responsible for 9.2% of ...

. On 14 June 2021, the National Executive of the Democrats decided to expel Maia from the party, after conflicts between the party and the former President of the Chamber.

Personal life

He has been married to Patrícia Vasconcelos since 2005. Maia is the father of four children.

Operation Car Wash

Rodrigo Maia's name appears in

Operation Car Wash Operation Car Wash ( pt, Operação Lava Jato) was a criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil's Curitiba branch. It began in March 2014 and was initially headed by investigative judge in France, but unlike judges in the common law ...

. According to the Brazilian weekly magazine Epoca, he exchanged text messages with contractor Léo Pinheiro, from regarding electoral donations. On 8 February 2017,

Jornal Nacional ''Jornal Nacional'' (; ) is the flagship television newscast of TV Globo. First airing on September 1, 1969, according to IBOPE (Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics), in the week of September 28October 4, 2015, it was the second ...

reported that the

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

investigation had concluded that there were signs of passive corruption and money laundering. The investigation began with text messages exchanged between and Maia. He is accused of providing "political favors" and defending OAS interests in Congress in 2013 and 2014. According to the Federal Police, Maia helped OAS by introducing an amendment to the provisional measure that created rules for regional aviation. Investigators believe that Maia asked the contractor for $1 million reais in electoral donations in 2014 (this money was officially given to Cesar Maia, Rodrigo Maia's father, campaign) and that this transfer was an attempt to hide the real origin of the money. Maia has denied any involvement. Given Maia's privilege as congressman, deciding whether to open investigations against him will be the responsibility of the federal

Public Prosecutor's Office Public prosecutor's offices are criminal justice bodies attached to the judiciary. They are separate from the courts in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and are called the Staatsanwaltschaft. This kind of office als ...

. In August 2019, Brazil's Federal Police found evidence of corruption and money laundering related to Rodrigo Maia. The federal police sent a final report on the investigation to the supreme court. The biggest implicated company,

Odebrecht Odebrecht S.A. (), officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company w ...

kept an entire department to coordinate the payment of bribe to politicians. In the Car Wash Operation, officers seized several electronic spreadsheets linking the payments to nicknames. Every corrupt politician received a nickname based on physical characteristics, public trajectory, personal infos, owned cars/boats, origin place or generic preferences. Rodrigo Maia's nickname was 'Botafogo', alusing the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

who he cheers for.

References

External links

Information in Portuguese from the Brazilian congress.
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Maia, Rodrigo 1970 births People from Santiago Living people Politicians from Santiago Brazilian Social Democracy Party politicians Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil)