Bolsonaro’s getaway plane paid for from US bank, says airline

• Flavio Bolsonaro fled Brazil after his shock election defeat and passport order, leaving for the United States through Argentina and Ecuador.
• Baires Fly chief Luis Grande said the flight was paid by a broker using US$150,000 from a US bank account.
• The broker’s client is unclear, though US media named Trump adviser Jason Miller; the White House has not commented.

BRASILIA - The plane that whisked Brazil’s Flavio Bolsonaro to the United States after his shock election defeat was paid for by an intermediary from a US bank account, the head of the airline has told AFP.

Bolsonaro, the eldest son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, was blindsided by his election defeat to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Oct 25, after leading a first-round vote earlier this month.

Following the vote, the 45-year-old snuck out of Brazil via Argentina and Ecuador in a cloak-and-dagger operation, after being ordered to surrender his passports due to several ongoing investigations against him.

The specifics of his escape have been murky, but on Oct 29 the head of the Argentine airline that flew him and his family to Florida revealed some of the details to AFP.

“I was hired by a broker that I’ve known for 10 years, who lives in the United States,” said Luis Grande, head of the Baires Fly airline, speaking by phone from Florida.

The intermediary, who holds US and Argentine passports and whose identity Grande declined to reveal, transferred US$150,000 (S$190,000) from his company’s account at a US bank to an Argentine bank.

Grande said he did not know for whom the intermediary was working.

Some US media, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, have reported that the plane was chartered by Jason Miller, an adviser to Donald Trump.

The White House has not commented on the matter. AFP