Another chapter in the mystery involving the socialite Regina Gonçalves88 years old, resident of the sumptuous Chopin building, next to the Copacabana Palace hotel, in Rio, and her driver, José Marcos Ribeiro, with whom he started to have a stable union. Friends and relatives allege that she was the victim of a scam by José Marcos, who kept her in private prison. The GENTE column discovered that the former driver was reported six and a half years ago for death threats to former employees and neighbors in Regina – including physical attacks on the socialite’s sister.
In November 2017, the housewife Onila Vieira Machado, then 49 years old, registered a police report at the 15th DP, in Gávea, south of Rio, against José Marcos, then 46 years old. His account says at the time that José Marcos arrived at his house, located at the back of the land of Regina’s mansion, in São Conrado, making death threats to him. Onila was very close to Regina, they treated each other like friends, as they lived almost in the same space.
Onila’s husband worked for Regina for 45 years as a private driver, without a formal contract or any employment rights. In July 2011, Regina hired José Marcos as a driver and Onila’s husband was reassigned to take care of Regina’s older sister. When he was fired, he filed a labor complaint. Then everything went downhill once and for all. José Marcos, already close to Regina, then began to threaten him, including demands that he and his wife, Onila, leave the residence they lived in, at the back of the mansion. Onila, upon arriving home on November 17, 2017, noticed that the newly renovated gate had been ripped out and work had begun in the backyard without her consent. José Marcos then said, according to his report to the police: “When are you going to get out of here? If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to have you killed.” A witness was interviewed about the case and confirmed that he witnessed other death threats made by José Marcos at different times against the couple.
Died in 1994, Nestor Gonçalves, Regina’s husband, donated the aforementioned house with the corresponding portion of the land to the couple in October 1993. But José Marcos tried to recover the property at all costs by becoming responsible for managing the millionaire’s assets. The column reported earlier that Regina accumulates several debts due to poor management of her assets. Regina’s family is trying to recover the right to this management in court, alleging that José Marcos did it without any consent.
But it doesn’t end there. In another case, from February 2018, Onila was a witness to physical aggression committed by José Marcos against the socialite Therezinha Lemos Yamada, Regina’s sister, in mid-2016. “I witnessed the countless times he trapped the elderly woman outside the mansion, leaving her to spend the night in the garden in the cold, it would be a way of punishing her for something that displeased him, and even took the elderly woman’s cell phone so she wouldn’t call anyone.” Therezinha also lived in the São Conrado mansion.
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According to Onila, she wrote in her own letter, attached to the process, Therezinha stopped on one of those nights at the Copacabana UPA, after going through countless attacks and threats until she died on May 21, 2016. Before that, the entire transfer cost and Therezinha’s subsequent admission to the private network was paid for by her sister Regina. Called to testify, José Marcos denied the crime and said that he was not in that place on the date mentioned.
Finally, Onila reported that José Marcos was constantly getting Regina, who called him her boyfriend, drunk, to “take advantage of her”.
