He was inside the same system, negotiating his position
Em meio à crise sanitária que consumiu o Brasil, um homem que se apresentou como denunciante da corrupção na compra de vacinas revelou-se, segundo mensagens de seu próprio celular, um participante do mesmo sistema que alegava expor. Luiz Paulo Dominguetti, policial militar que levou acusações de propina à CPI da Covid, teria negociado comissões de R$ 0,25 por dose para mais de três milhões de unidades da Covaxin — transformando o denunciante em suspeito. O episódio ilumina uma verdade incômoda sobre escândalos de corrupção: raramente há um lado de fora absolutamente limpo, apenas diferentes graus de envolvimento no mesmo ecossistema.
- Dominguetti construiu sua reputação pública como denunciante corajoso, mas mensagens recuperadas de seu celular apreendido sugerem que ele negociava sua própria fatia nas comissões do mesmo contrato que denunciou.
- O programa Fantástico obteve acesso exclusivo às mensagens e revelou que Dominguetti propôs a divisão igualitária de comissões entre ele, Odilon e o sócio de Odilon — com linguagem direta e sem aparente constrangimento.
- A CPI da Covid, que já investigava deputados como Ricardo Barros e Luis Miranda com base nas denúncias de Dominguetti, agora precisa reavaliar a credibilidade de sua principal testemunha.
- O celular ainda estava sob análise forense, e o conteúdo completo não havia sido divulgado — deixando em aberto a extensão real do envolvimento de Dominguetti.
- O escândalo aprofunda a percepção de que a corrupção na compra de vacinas não foi um desvio isolado, mas uma rede de intermediários disputando posição em torno de recursos públicos destinados a salvar vidas.
Em fevereiro, Luiz Paulo Dominguetti enviou uma mensagem a um contato identificado como Guilherme Filho Odilon. O assunto era direto: estavam negociando a compra de mais de três milhões de doses de vacina, e a comissão seria de vinte e cinco centavos por dose, dividida proporcionalmente entre os envolvidos. Semanas depois, esse mesmo homem se tornaria conhecido como o policial militar que levou à CPI da Covid acusações de propina ligadas ao contrato da Covaxin.
O programa Fantástico obteve acesso exclusivo às mensagens após o celular de Dominguetti ser apreendido durante seu depoimento à comissão. A análise preliminar cobriu cerca de novecentos threads em diferentes aplicativos de mensagens. O que emergiu foi um retrato que contrariava diretamente o papel que Dominguetti havia assumido publicamente.
A estrutura da comissão descrita por ele era clara: três partes envolvidas, divisão igual, proporcional à contribuição de cada grupo. Não havia hesitação aparente. Era a linguagem de alguém familiarizado com esse tipo de negociação — não a de um observador externo alarmado com o que via.
O problema de credibilidade foi imediato. As denúncias de Dominguetti haviam movimentado a CPI e direcionado investigações a figuras como os deputados Ricardo Barros e Luis Miranda. Mas se ele próprio negociava comissões no mesmo contrato, a natureza de suas alegações originais tornava-se ambígua: eram denúncias genuínas, ou parte de uma disputa por quem lucraria com a compra?
O celular ainda estava sob análise forense, e o quadro completo permanecia incerto. Mas o que já havia sido revelado era suficiente para complicar profundamente a investigação — e para sugerir que a disfunção no processo de compra de vacinas era mais ampla e mais enraizada do que qualquer acusação isolada poderia capturar.
In early February, a military police officer named Luiz Paulo Dominguetti sent a message to a contact he identified as Guilherme Filho Odilon. The message outlined a business proposal: they were negotiating the purchase of more than three million vaccine doses, and the commission would be twenty-five cents per dose. Dominguetti had become known weeks earlier as the man who walked into Brazil's COVID-19 parliamentary inquiry with allegations of a bribery scheme tied to the Covaxin vaccine procurement. Now, messages pulled from his seized phone told a different story.
The television program Fantástico obtained exclusive access to these messages after Dominguetti's phone was confiscated during his testimony before the CPI da Covid, the special commission investigating pandemic-related corruption. Preliminary analysis had already covered roughly nine hundred message threads across various messaging applications. What emerged was a portrait of a man who appeared to be doing exactly what he had accused others of doing.
In that February message, Dominguetti laid out the mechanics of the arrangement with striking clarity. The commission structure, he explained, would divide the total take equally among all parties involved, though proportionally adjusted based on the size of each group's contribution. He identified three key players: himself, Odilon, and Odilon's partner. He saw no reason they couldn't move forward on those terms.
The revelation created an immediate credibility problem. Dominguetti had positioned himself as a whistleblower exposing corruption at the highest levels of the federal government's vaccine purchasing apparatus. His allegations had drawn serious attention from lawmakers investigating whether officials had demanded bribes in exchange for approving the Covaxin deal. But the messages suggested he was not an outsider reporting wrongdoing—he was a participant in the same ecosystem of commission negotiations he claimed to be exposing.
The phone itself remained under forensic examination, meaning the full contents had not yet been released. But what Fantástico had already analyzed was enough to complicate the narrative considerably. The inquiry was supposed to determine whether government officials had solicited kickbacks. Instead, it now had to reckon with the possibility that one of its key witnesses had been negotiating his own cut of the same vaccine deal.
The implications rippled outward. If Dominguetti was himself engaged in commission negotiations, what was the nature of his original allegations? Were they genuine concerns about corruption, or were they part of a larger competitive struggle over who would profit from the vaccine purchase? The CPI had already moved to investigate other figures mentioned in connection with the Covaxin deal, including deputies Ricardo Barros and Luis Miranda. Now those investigations would have to account for the fact that their primary accuser appeared to have his own financial interests in the transaction.
Brazil's vaccine procurement process had already been marked by delays and complications. The Covaxin deal itself had become emblematic of the dysfunction and alleged corruption that plagued the government's pandemic response. Dominguetti's original allegations had seemed to offer a window into that dysfunction. Instead, the messages suggested the dysfunction ran deeper and wider than a simple case of officials demanding bribes. It appeared to involve a network of intermediaries, each negotiating their own position, each seeking their own commission, all circling the same pool of public money meant to purchase vaccines for a nation in crisis.
Notable Quotes
We are negotiating some vaccines in numbers exceeding 3 million doses. In this case the commission comes to 0.25 cents per dose— Luiz Paulo Dominguetti, in message dated February 10
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
So Dominguetti walked into the COVID inquiry claiming to expose a bribery scheme. What changed?
His phone was seized during his testimony, and messages showed he was negotiating the exact same kind of commission deal he claimed to be exposing—twenty-five cents per dose on over three million units.
Was he lying about the corruption, or was he just trying to get his own cut?
That's the question no one can answer cleanly now. The messages suggest he wasn't an outsider reporting wrongdoing. He was inside the same system, negotiating his position.
Who was he negotiating with?
Someone named Guilherme Filho Odilon and Odilon's partner. The messages show him explaining how they'd divide the total commission equally, proportional to each person's contribution.
Did his original allegations have any merit?
That's what the inquiry has to figure out now. His credibility is shattered, but the underlying questions about vaccine procurement corruption don't disappear just because the whistleblower had dirty hands too.
What happens to the investigation?
It continues, but now investigators have to treat Dominguetti as a potential suspect rather than a reliable witness. The whole thing becomes messier, not cleaner.