Rodrigo Maia

Rodrigo Felinto Ibarra Epitácio Maia (born 12 June 1970) is a Brazilian politician who served as the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil between July 2016 and February 2021. A member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party since 2022, he is the son of former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia and was reelected five times as a congressman until 2023, when he decided to not run for a sixth term in the Chamber of Deputies. Maia was affiliated to the Democrats party, formerly PFL, from 1996 to 2021, when he was expelled from the party for criticizing the party president, ACM Neto.

Biography
Rodrigo Maia was born in Chile, while his father, the former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia was living in exile, and was registered at the Brazilian consulate in Santiago. Maia started economics at Candido Mendes University, but did not complete the course.

In 1990, before starting a career in politics, he worked for Banco BMG and then Banco Icatu. From 1997 to 1998, Maia was Municipal Secretary of the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

In April 2012, he won the title of citizen of the State of Rio de Janeiro.

On 14 June 2021, the National Executive of the Democrats decided to expel Maia from the party, after conflicts between the party and the former President of the Chamber.

Personal life
He has been married to Patrícia Vasconcelos since 2005. Maia is the father of four children.

Operation Car Wash
Rodrigo Maia's name appears in Operation Car Wash. According to the Brazilian weekly magazine Epoca, he exchanged text messages with contractor Léo Pinheiro, from Grupo OAS regarding electoral donations. On 8 February 2017, Jornal Nacional reported that the Federal Police investigation had concluded that there were signs of passive corruption and money laundering. The investigation began with text messages exchanged between Leo Pinheiro and Maia. He is accused of providing "political favors" and defending OAS interests in Congress in 2013 and 2014. According to the Federal Police, Maia helped OAS by introducing an amendment to the provisional measure that created rules for regional aviation. Investigators believe that Maia asked the contractor for $1 million reais in electoral donations in 2014 (this money was officially given to Cesar Maia, Rodrigo Maia's father, campaign) and that this transfer was an attempt to hide the real origin of the money. Maia has denied any involvement. Given Maia's privilege as congressman, deciding whether to open investigations against him will be the responsibility of the federal Public Prosecutor's Office.

In August 2019, Brazil's Federal Police found evidence of corruption and money laundering related to Rodrigo Maia. The federal police sent a final report on the investigation to the supreme court.

The biggest implicated company, Odebrecht kept an entire department to coordinate the payment of bribes to politicians. In the Car Wash Operation, officers seized several electronic spreadsheets linking the payments to nicknames. Every corrupt politician received a nickname based on physical characteristics, public trajectory, personal infos, owned cars/boats, origin place or generic preferences. Rodrigo Maia's nickname was 'Botafogo', referring to the football team he supports.