Ministers, advisers and civil servants

Ricardo Salles

DefendantCriminal organizationFacilitating smuggling or customs evasion (art. 318 of the Penal Code)Administrative advocacy (art. 321 of the Penal Code)Obstructing or hindering the oversight action of public authorities on environmental matters (art. 69 of Law 9.605/1998)Obstruction of a criminal organization investigation (art. 2, § 1, of Law 12.850/2013)

Lawyer. Minister of the Environment in the Jair Bolsonaro government from 1/01/2019 to 23/06/2021, when he asked to be dismissed five weeks after being the target of the Federal Police's (PF) Operation Akuanduba. Federal deputy for São Paulo (affiliated with Novo according to a September 2025 news report). Defendant in Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) in a case on facilitating the smuggling of forest products, still awaiting judgment.

Translated from the Portuguese original. Legal details and sources are in the Portuguese version. See the full file in Portuguese, with all sources →

Court cases and investigations

Criminal sphere

Criminal Case 2.705 (Supreme Federal Court, STF) — timber export (originating in Pet 8.975 and Operation Akuanduba) — Defendant (charges accepted by the court)
Inquiry in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) into alleged interference by Ricardo Salles in Operation Handroanthus (criminal complaint by delegate Alexandre Saraiva) — Under investigation

See the full file in Portuguese, with all sources →