São Paulo: More Glide-Path Sex-Factory Newsflow!

See also The Apologia Pro Vita Sua of Oscar Maroni, Sex-Death Hotelier (NMM(-TV)SNB(B)CNNBS):

According to the MPE, Maroni [above, delivering an apologia pro prostibulo suo] is building “a complex of 11 stories next to the house of prostitution with a view to growing his nefarious business by facilitating prostitution, having maintained for some time a passage linking the two buildings, even furnishing the building with 10 (ten) bedrooms destined for libidinous encounters.”

From the Agência Brasil, a follow-up to São Paulo: “Death Hotelier Was a Sex-Slaver and a Victim of Political Persecution!”

Air Force-authorized sex factory in death airport glide path! The only thing missing to make the scandal complete: A mountain of money. (Even odds they dig one up.)

Mayor Kassab was roundly criticized earlier this year for joking on a TV program, regarding the January Pinheiros subway collapse, that all the love motels must have disgorged their naked clientele when the earth started shaking. See São Paulo’s Kassab: On YouTube, All Politics is Yokel.

Does this mean we will no longer be dining with the ladies of the evening at O Sujinho? You know the place. The city government is in something of a reputational hole right now after revelations that illegal gambling joints paid off judges, just about every police precinct in the city, and even deputy mayors, to stay in business. See

• São Paulo: Bingo Bombs in Butantã!
• São Paulo Diary: Sundown on the Bingo Matarazzo?
• Sampa Diary: More on Matarazzo
• Rio-Sampa: “The Italian-Colombian Connection”
• São Paulo: Judgment Day for Judges in Big Bingo Bust

I assure you I will not be the only observer to speculate about the fact that it is trying to look extremely busy at the moment arresting people right and left for every other local, state and federal crime on the book.

Merely speculation at this point, I hasten to add. But we shall see.

O empresário Oscar Maroni Filho, dono da casa noturna Bahamas e do Oscar’s Hotel, foi preso na madrugada de hoje (14) por uma equipe do Grupo de Operações Especias (GOE) da Polícia Civil, em um flat localizado na Vila Olímpia, na zona sul da capital paulista, segundo informações da Secretaria de Segurança Pública (SSP) de São Paulo.

Businessman Oscar Maroni Jr., owner of the Bahamas night club and Oscar’s Hotel, was arrested in the early morning hours today by a team from the Special Operations Group of the São Paulo state judicial police in a flat in Vila Olympia, in the Southern Zone of São Paulo, according to state officials.

Maroni estava com a prisão decretada pela Justiça desde a semana passada, após denúncia do promotor do Ministério Público Estadual (MPE) José Carlos Blat, feita no início do mês e acatada pelo juiz Edson Aparecido Brandão, da 5ª Vara Criminal de São Paulo. Para o MPE, o próprio empresário afirmou em entrevista a uma rede de televisão que o Bahamas é uma “casa de prostituição de luxo”.

Maroni had warrant for his arrest issued last week after state prosecutor (MPE) José Carlos Blat charged him earlier in the month and the case was accepted by Judge Edson Aparecido Brandão of the 5th Criminal Bar. The MPE charges that the businessman admitted in a TV interview that Bahamas is “a deluxe house of prostitution.”

We were really surprised a year or so ago to find that one of our preferred night spots had morphed into one of those — scratch the “deluxe,” actually — in the intervening year. The enredo of the local carnival society this year — see Bovespa Boogies with the Black Pearl — even seemed to allude to the fact.

The Vila Madelena, when it does business, asks the question that cannot be silenced. I will sell to anyone who wants to buy, but I will never sell you the precious jewel of my love.

Pérola Negra: saravá! We are deeply true to our escola de samba.

Desde novembro de 2004, o empresário é investigado por formação de quadrilha, tráfico de mulheres, exploração de prostíbulo e favorecimento à prostituição

The businessman has been under investigation since November 2005 for racketeering, trafficking in woman, operating a bordello and aiding and abetting prostitution.

“Seja decretada a prisão preventiva do denunciado Oscar Maroni Filho, que é chefe da organização criminosa e há muito tempo vem afrontando as Autoridades Públicas, incentivando mulheres à prostituição, mantendo um estabelecimento voltado a atividades criminosas sem o competente alvará de licença de localização e funcionamento”, diz um trecho da denúncia do Ministério Público Estadual, que pede a prisão do empresário.

“We hereby decree the preventive imprisonment of accused Oscar Maroni Jr., who is the head of a criminal organization and for a long time now has been defying the Authorities, encouraging women to prostitution, maintaining an establishment dedicated to criminal activities without the correct licenses for location and operation,” said a section of the charging document.

I do not think they mean to imply that with the proper licenses, you could run an establisment dedicated to criminal activities. It is (1) used for criminal purposes, and (2) improperly licensed.

A denúncia questiona ainda a construção do Oscar’s Hotel, prédio de 11 andares e mais dois subsolos, vizinho ao Aeroporto de Congonhas, que desde o acidente com o avião da TAM, no dia 17 de julho, é questionado também pela prefeitura de São Paulo por cometer irregularidades como alterar a destinação do imóvel e construir numa área maior do que o permitido. A intenção da prefeitura é que o prédio seja demolido.

The indictment also questions the constuction of Oscar’s Hotel, an 11-story building with two sub-basements, next to the Congonhas Airport, which since the TAM accident on July 17 has also been questioned by the city government over such irregularities as altering the purpose of the building and building on a larger area than permitted. The city government means to demolish the building.

Para o MPE, Maroni está construindo “um complexo de onze andares ao lado do prostíbulo (Bahamas) visando aumentar seus negócios escusos com a facilitação a prostituição, tendo mantido por um tempo uma passagem ligando as duas edificações, contando ainda na parte em construção com 10 (dez) quartos destinados aos encontros libidinosos”.

According to the MPE, Maroni is buiding “a complex of 11 stories next to the house of prostitution with a view to growing his nefarious business by facilitating prostitution, having maintained for some time a passage linking the two buildings, and furnishing the building with 10 (ten) bedrooms destined for libidinous encounters.”

De acordo com o advogado do empresário, Wladmir Silveira, o imóvel não estaria irregular por ser destinado para fins residenciais. “Existe uma série de outros hotéis ao redor de Congonhas”, diz Silveira. Segundo ele, no parágrafo único da portaria 1141/GM5, do Ministério da Aeronáutica, do artigo 70, há uma cláusula de exceção sobre a construção de hotéis ao redor dos aeroportos.

According to the businessman’s attorney, Wladmir Silveira, the building is not irregular because it is destined for residential use. “There are a series of other hotels around Congonhas,” he said. According to him, in first paragraph of Order 1141/GM5 from the Ministry of the Air Force, Article 70, there is an exception clause regarding the construction of hotels near airports.

“A cláusula diz que a construção pode ser liberada se atender a alguns requisitos que os outros hotéis e o meu cliente fizeram”, afirma o advogado. De acordo com ele, o hotel foi construído 50 centímetros abaixo dos 47,5 metros de altura máxima permitida pela Aeronáutica.

“The clause says the construction can be authorized if it meets certain requirements, which the other hotels, and my client as well, have met,” the attorney says. According to him, the hotel was built 50 cm shorter than the 47.5m maximum height permitted by the Air Force.

Yes, sir. And the alleged Air Force-authorized sex-factory angle?

Mr. Maroni addresses that issue by calling the prostitution charges “hypocritical.”

As in, “Hey, everybody does it, and you people know that. So why me?”

Coked-out hookers, and those guys with the folded arms who watch them work, make me nervous. Neuza assures me it is all business as usual there near the Conjunto Nacional. You know the neighborhood. Hotel district.

When The Fix breaks down — is out rather than “in” — things tend to get interesting.

Or so one reads in the annals of crime.

Stay tuned.