Paraguayan Congressman Suspected of Money Laundering Before Being Fatally Shot by Police
One year after a Paraguayan congressman was shot to death in his home during a police raid, newly obtained documents shed light on the criminal investigation that had been building against him and his son for years.
Eulalio Gomes Batista was elected to Congress in 2023, the year before his death. By the time he entered politics, local media had reported on his alleged ties to the criminal underworld in Pedro Juan Caballero, a city on the border with Brazil.
Now, internal documents from the Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained by OCCRP and partners, including Forbidden Stories, show that authorities had been collecting evidence against Gomes since at least 2017.
Paraguayan police say Gomes was killed after opening fire on officers when they raided his home in Pedro Juan Caballero in August 2024. Before the raid, Gomes had been charged with money laundering and criminal association, along with his son, Alexander, who is still under investigation.
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The Gomes family lawyer, Óscar Tuma, disputes the official account, telling reporters that Alexander had been at his father’s home with his wife and daughters, “when hooded individuals armed with high-caliber weapons entered the house.”
“Everyone’s first thought was that it was an attempted kidnapping, which is why there was an exchange of gunfire,” Tuma said, adding that Alexander fled the house, but turned himself into police later that day.
Tuma said the allegations against both Alexander and his father are false.
“More than a year after the investigation began, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not presented any direct or documentary evidence to prove that Eulalio Gomes or his son Alexandre participated in any operation linked to drug trafficking or money laundering,” he said.
However, the internal documents from the Public Prosecutor’s Office provide insight into the case against Gomes and his son.
The documents include an internal investigation by BBVA Paraguay — the local unit of a Spanish bank with extensive operations throughout Latin America — focusing on its branch in Pedro Juan Caballero, and dated October 10, 2017.
The probe flags money transfers between Gomes and his son and a company Paraguayan authorities allege is tied to Luiz Carlos da Rocha, who faces charges in his home country of Brazil for alleged drug trafficking and related crimes, including money laundering. The investigation against da Rocha is ongoing.
In the indictment against Eulalio Gomes and his son, the Prosecutor’s Office references at least one bank transaction of over 400 million guarani ($53,000) sent to a company authorities believe to be connected to da Rocha.
Tuma, however, denied any such link, saying there was “no contract, transfer, financial or business transaction” linking Gomes or his son to da Rocha.
In 2021, the Public Prosecutor’s Office received another report, this one focused specifically on the financial activity of Gomes and his son. The report came from Paraguay’s Financial Intelligence Unit of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money and Asset Laundering.
That report detailed the movement of millions of dollars through accounts held by the father and son and one of their companies between 2015 and 2021. The agency noted the wide discrepancy between the money movements and the declared incomes of both men, with no explanation of where the extra cash came from.
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"The parties involved in this report record credit movements in financial sector accounts that exceed their income declared to the Tax Administration, which suggests that the source of the money is unknown,” it states.
The report says that Gomes was “linked to the case” of da Rocha, who has been investigated by the Paraguay Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Tuma said he doubted the existence of the report, and noted that prosecutors had not included it in the case file.
“The accounting experts show that the financial movements correspond to declared commercial and livestock operations, with legitimate documentary support,” he added.
In 2022, the Paraguayan Public Prosecutor’s Office sent Brazil a request for judicial cooperation. The request, which was obtained by reporters, shows Paraguayan authorities seeking information on people who “are believed to be linked to transnational criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking in the Federative Republic of Brazil."
Among those mentioned were Gomes and his son.
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