Scammers used a server abroad and a foreign cell phone, says PF

“The material presenting false vulnerabilities in electronic voting machines produced before 2020, was prepared by the group, including with the help of what Mauro Cid called ‘our people’, referring to experts in the IT field (including hackers)”, says the PF report.

“Following the multichannel dissemination strategy, those investigated forwarded the content to the Argentinean Fernando Cerimedo, who disseminated the false material in a live broadcast held on 11/04/2022. The content of the live stream was summarized and propagated by several members of the organization , including by military personnel”, points out the investigation.

“Subsequently, in order to circumvent court blocking orders, those investigated made the content available on servers located outside the country”, revealed the PF. “The purpose of the disclosure was to keep protesters against the results of the polls in the 2022 presidential election mobilized,” he said. For the PF, the goal was to “create an atmosphere of popular indignation and revolt.”

The use of servers abroad was first revealed by the Vero Notícias portal, which explained how Cid had sent confidential data to a server in the USA, on Bolsonaro’s orders.

In the document, the PF states that “it was also identified that the same content was also contained in the document called ‘bolsonaro min defense 06.11-semifinaldocx’, addressed to General Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, then Minister of Defense and forwarded by Cid to General Braga Netto, via WhatsApp”.

According to the PF, Lieutenant Colonel Marques de Almeida, then assigned to the Army Land Operations Command (COTER), within the division of tasks established by those being investigated, “deliberately acted to circumvent the court order blocking false content about the Brazilian electoral system, making the material produced by Cerimedo available on servers located outside the country”.