Sorocaba Mayor Suspended for 180 Days as Federal Police Expand Corruption Probe

Overview

• TRF‑3 ordered Rodrigo Manga’s temporary removal with bans on approaching city headquarters or contacting municipal staff and other targets.
• The probe’s second phase executed seven searches, made two preventive arrests of the first lady’s relatives and one of a businessman, and froze R$6.5 million in assets.
• Investigators say suspected kickbacks were funneled through a church run by the first lady’s sister and brother‑in‑law to the first lady’s firm, which also received R$448,000 from an allied parking company.
• Case records cite R$780,000 in church payments to the firm, a prior seizure of R$903,000 in cash at the church, hundreds of cash deposits totaling millions, and an R$182,000 cash down payment in the mayor’s 2021 home purchase.
• Vice mayor Fernando Martins assumed city duties, pledged administrative continuity without cabinet changes for now, and Manga’s defense denied wrongdoing and said it will appeal.