BRAZILIAN federal police have accused far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro of receiving large sums of money without apparent justification between March of 2023 and February of 2024, according to investigation documents obtained by the Associated Press news agency on Thursday.

Investigators say Brazil’s financial watchdog suspects it has a case of money laundering involving Mr Bolsonaro, who in early September will face the verdict and sentencing phase of his trial over an alleged coup plot. 

The former president could face another trial if the attorney general decides to charge him with obstruction of justice.

Mr Bolsonaro did not immediately comment on the latest accusation, but he has previously claimed he is being persecuted politically by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The new documents, added to a 170-page long obstruction-of-justice investigation, allege Mr Bolsonaro received more than 30 million Brazilian reais (around £3.7m), most of it without apparent justification, along with debits of almost the same amount during that period. 

Mr Bolsonaro, a supporter of US President Donald Trump, held office from January 1 2019 to December 31 2022.

The documents have been sent to the country’s Supreme Court. Much of the information obtained by the financial watchdog comes from state-run bank Banco do Brasil.

Almost 20m reais (£2.57m) allegedly came from more than 1.2m direct transactions called PIX. Mr Bolsonaro spent a similar amount on investments in that period. 

The documents also showed that the former president spent money on wire transfers, payment of deposit slips, withdrawals and exchange operations.

Brazil’s federal police say in the new documents that Mr Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo used “several manoeuvres to dissimulate the origin and destination of financial resources, with the aim of financing and supporting activities of illegal nature of the lawmaker [Eduardo Bolsonaro] living abroad.”