Prerogatives activates PF and Electoral Court for PL to explain company hiring

The legal group Prerogativas, aligned with the Lula (PT) government, contacted the Electoral Court and the Federal Police asking for an investigation into the hiring, by the Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) campaign, of a company that had offered tools abroad to manipulate elections.

According to a report on the website Intercept Brasil, the company Elytron has among its services political manipulation in elections using artificial intelligence.

The PL campaign denies this and says it is just a cybersecurity service.

In factual news addressed to the PF, lawyers Marco Aurélio de Carvalho and Reinaldo Santos de Almeida, from Prerrogativas, point to documents that describe false accounts, rumors, deepfakes and psychological warfare operations against opponents.

"The question is whether, behind the digital security discourse, a disinformation machine was hired to interfere in the Brazilian election", say the lawyers.

They ask that the PL disclose the details of the contract and the discrepancy in the values ​​reported by the campaign.

"Flávio and the PL need to open the contracts and explain the payments: there are R$600 thousand in valid campaign invoices and another R$131.9 thousand paid by the party to Elytron. The partial accounting, however, declared an expense of R$1 million with the company. This difference requires clarification, as well as the services actually delivered and the possible participation of foreign structures", says Prerogativas.

"Brazilian democracy cannot be captured by money, lies and clandestine operations", adds the legal group.

Other side

In a statement, Elytron says that it "strongly repudiates any attempt to associate its name with the dissemination of false information, the use of deepfakes or the carrying out of clandestine operations to manipulate public opinion."

"The company operates in the cyber and information security segment, with services of an exclusively defensive nature, and does not offer, execute or authorize this type of practice for any client, national or international, including Senator Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign."

The company says it "was not hired by Donald Trump's campaign, did not provide services to it or to intermediaries linked to it and did not authorize commercial presentations on its behalf to offer political influence operations."

"If it is confirmed that commercial partners offered irregular services on behalf of Elytron, without its authorization, the company will adopt the appropriate contractual and legal measures to hold those involved responsible and protect its reputation. It is important to emphasize that Vincent Reed never had any relationship with Elytron Do Brasil, who was unaware of its activities."

Elytron adds that there is no discrepancy in the amounts contracted and paid.

"The contract initially signed, worth R$1 million, was cancelled, and a contractual addendum worth R$600 thousand was subsequently formalized. To this amount are added the R$131.9 thousand paid by the Liberal Party (PL), referring to another contract."