Brazil’s former president may be arrested because of expensive watches sold at the Willow Grove Mall

Jair Bolsonaro may be on the verge of arrest, but not because of the accusations against him regarding fraud or election tampering or inciting Brazil’s January capitol riot. Instead, the downfall of the former president of Brazil may result from his alleged involvement in the sale of two luxury watches at a fluorescent-lit jewelry store at the Willow Grove Mall.

Federal police in Brazil this month accused Bolsonaro of participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to embezzle diplomatic gifts he received while he was president.

In an extensively-detailed example, Bolsonaro directed his personal aide, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, to sell a diamond and white gold Rolex that was a gift from Saudi Arabia, according to Brazilian court documents The Inquirer read using translation software. Bolsonaro also allegedly dispatched Cid to sell a Patek Philippe watch that authorities believed was a gift from Bahrain.

Cid and Bolsonaro were in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas in June 2022. About that time, Cid sold the two watches to Willow Grove’s Precision Watches & Jewelry for $68,000, the court documents said.

Precision Watches is a family-owned luxury watch retailer that sits across from the tween ear-piercing conglomerate Claire’s and below a shoe store called Got Em’ Kicks. Behind a security stanchion, large screens display a rotating selection of high-end watches.

On a recent visit to the store, a man in a three-piece suit offered a reporter a chilled bottle of water and a napkin embossed with the company’s name, while declining to comment on Bolsonaro’s entanglements.

“It wasn’t out of the norm,” said a man who identified himself as the owner of Precision in an interview with The Inquirer about the sale. He declined to be identified by name because of safety concerns. He also said that he did not want to comment on the specifics of the transaction but that the shop has cooperated with authorities. Precision typically requires sellers to provide ID and sign a purchase contract when selling pre-owned watches, he said. Many of the store’s watches retail for tens of thousands of dollars.

It appears that Cid visited the store in person to make the sale, using Waze to navigate to the Willow Grove mall. He connected to the Precision WiFi network during the sale, the court documents said.

Bolsonaro later received some of the resulting $68,000 in cash, according to the New York Times. Cid’s lawyer recently told reporters that Bolsonaro ordered Cid to “deal with” the Saudi gifts, which included the watch and other items, which led him to sell the watch and give the money to Bolsonaro.

Cid and Bolsonaro’s other aides allegedly attempted to sell a variety of other diplomatic gifts, as well, but the watch sale at Willow Grove was the only successful deal. (It’s not clear where they tried to sell the other gifts.)

Bolsonaro’s trouble with foreign gifts first came to light when administration officials attempted to bring $3 million worth of jewelry into the country without declaring it in 2021. The jewels were seized and launched a federal investigation into money laundering and embezzlement, which became public in the spring.

Bolsonaro’s lawyer, Paulo Cunha Bueno, told the Times that the jewelry was personal property and Bolsonaro was therefore allowed to do whatever he wanted with it.

“It’s his right,” Bueno told the Times. “It doesn’t matter.”

In the meantime, Bolsonaro is ensnared in a number of other legal complications, including an investigation into his involvement in the January riot in Brazil’s capitol, which thousands of his supporters stormed after he lost reelection, as well as accusations that he directed police to interfere with his rival’s voters on election day.

There is also an inquiry into whether the former president forged COVID-19 vaccine cards, allowing him and others close to him access to the United States when strict travel restrictions were in place. His assistant, Cid, has been jailed since May related to that case.

After the head of Brazil’s watchdog court learned of the jewelry and ordered Bolsonaro to return it, Bolsonaro’s former lawyer flew to Pennsylvania in March. He visited Willow Grove and repurchased the Rolex for $49,000, according to court records.

Initially, the lawyer denied ever having seen the watch, the Times reported. Then news sites published photographs of the receipt for the watch with his name on it, at which point he said he had indeed repurchased the watch, but not at Bolsonaro’s direction.

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.