Mendonça gives deadline for renegotiating leniency, but denies Lava Jato’s “revisionism”

The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) André Mendonça authorized the renegotiation of leniency agreements concluded between companies and Operation Lava Jato. Mendonça held a conciliation hearing this Monday (26) within the scope of the action presented in March 2023 by Psol, PCdoB and Solidariedade. At the meeting, he defended the importance of the device as an instrument to combat corruption and highlighted that the proposed conciliation will not serve as a “historical revision” of Lava Jato.

The parties ask for the suspension of leniency agreements signed until August 2020 by the task force, before the Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT), which standardized the criteria for applying fines. The minister determined that companies and control bodies – accompanied by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) – will have 60 days to reach a consensus on the terms of the agreements. During this period, the fine will be suspended.

According to Mendonça, the objective is to ensure that companies negotiate with public entities based on the “principles of good faith, mutual collaboration, confidentiality, reasonableness and proportionality”. The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, and the President of the Federal Audit Court (TCU), Minister Bruno Dantas, also participated in the hearing.

The validity of the device came back into discussion after Minister Dias Toffoli suspended the leniency agreements signed by Novonor (formerly Odebrecht) and J&F with Lava Jato. Toffoli accepted the companies’ requests after annulling all the evidence collected from the Drousys and My Web Day B systems and the evidence found during Operation Spoofing. The PGR filed an appeal against Toffoli’s decision, but the request has not yet been analyzed.