Fachin proposes a 33-year prison sentence for Collor for corruption scheme – 05/17/2023 – Politics

Minister Edson Fachin, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), voted this Wednesday (17) for the conviction of former president Fernando Collor (PTB-AL) to a sentence of 33 years, 10 months and ten days in prison.

The demonstration was made in the criminal action derived from Operation Lava Jato in which Collor, who is also a former senator, is accused of receiving bribes from a corruption scheme at BR Distribuidora, a subsidiary of Petrobras.

Fachin, the rapporteur for the case, found Collor guilty of the crimes of passive corruption, money laundering and criminal organization.

The other ministers of the Supreme Court will still vote in the process. The case was brought to trial because it is close to the statute of limitations.

Fachin established a closed regime for the beginning of Collor’s sentence. For the rapporteur, he is not entitled to replacement by precautionary measures or to conditional suspension of the sentence.

According to the complaint by the PGR (Attorney General of the Republic), Collor would have received at least BRL 29 million in bribes between 2010 and 2014 in this scheme.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the former senator requested and accepted a promise to irregularly make viable a contract to change the flag of fuel stations entered into between BR Distribuidora and the company DVBR (Derivados do Brasil), with the help of other defendants.

Fachin also suggested a minimum indemnity amount for collective moral damages of BRL 20 million, to be paid jointly by the former president and businessmen Luis Pereira Duarte de Amorim and Pedro Paulo Bergamaschi de Leoni Ramos.

The first is director of the Arnon de Mello Institute and a business administrator for Collor; the second is appointed as the ex-senator’s operator. According to the complaint, the two helped in the scheme.

Fachin also voted for the loss, in favor of the Union, of the assets, rights and values ​​object of the laundering in relation to which the defendants were convicted and the prohibition of holding office or public function of any nature.

The STF minister said that the various money laundering practices committed by Collor enabled the concealment and dissimulation of the illicit origin of a considerable amount of corruption practiced within the scope of BR Distribuidora.

Fachin stated that the accused’s guilt is exacerbated, “since membership of an organized criminal group by someone who is usually the holder of popular trust for the exercise of power entails a much more intense judgment of disapproval than would be appropriate in the case of a citizen common”.

“What emerges from the case under analysis is the absolute disrespect for the principles of mandatory observance by those exercising public functions, on which no transactional limit was granted to them”, he said.

The penalty suggested by Fachin was greater than that proposed by Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Lindôra Araújo.

She asked for Collor’s conviction to 22 years and eight months in prison, in support of the understanding of former prosecutor Raquel Dodge in 2019.

Lindôra stated that the conduct narrated in the accusation is sufficiently proven in the records, not only through the award-winning collaborations, but in financial reports.

She also cited as a basis documents seized or brought by the parties, terms of statements and bank details and records of entry into the office of money changer Alberto Youssef.

The money changer is appointed as the operator of the transfers, which, analyzed together, according to the prosecution, leave no doubt about the authorship and materiality of the crimes committed.

Collor was the third senator to become a defendant in Lava Jato. The complaint was one of the first offered by the PGR within the scope of the operation, in August 2015. At the time, Fachin even rejected the accusations of embezzlement and obstruction of justice.