Lava Jato: Prosecutor who paid for the billboard remains in office – 11/22/2023 – Power

The Federal Court in Paraná denied the Federal Public Ministry’s request to dismiss the public prosecutor Diogo Castor de Mattos, who served on the Operation Lava Jato task force until the beginning of 2019. The decision, signed last Thursday (16) , is by substitute judge Thais Sampaio da Silva Machado, from the 1st Federal Court of Curitiba. There is an appeal.

In October 2021, the CNMP (National Council of the Public Ministry) decided to impose a dismissal penalty on Castor de Mattos for commissioning a billboard in honor of Operation Lava Jato. By 6 votes to 5, the council plenary understood that the prosecutor committed an act of administrative improbity.

However, due to the lifetime of the position, the penalty of dismissal is not applied immediately. After the CNMP’s decision, the then attorney general Augusto Aras delegated to a member of the MPF the task of filing a public civil action for loss of office against Castor de Mattos, which occurred in July 2022.

The prosecutor became a target of the CNMP because, in March 2019, he arranged for the installation of a billboard, worth R$4,100, with the image of nine Lava Jato prosecutors, accompanied by the following text: “Welcome to the Republic of Curitiba – land of Operation Lava Jato – the investigation that changed the country. Here the law is fulfilled. March 17, five years of Operation Lava Jato – Brazil Thanks”.

The billboard was installed on land on Avenida Rocha Pombo, outside Curitiba International Airport.

During questioning by the CNMP, he confirmed that he had paid for the advertising piece with his own resources.

The CNMP understood that the conduct constituted the practice of an act of administrative improbity as it violated the constitutional principles of impersonality and morality. It also considered that there had been a violation of functional duties established in Complementary Law 75/1993.

In Thursday’s ruling, however, the judge highlights that there were changes to the Administrative Improbity Law. Following the change in the law approved by Congress in 2021, the judge stated, the act of misconduct is only characterized “if the conduct objectively conforms to the hypotheses described”.

According to her, the new legislation requires that the act of advertising, to constitute improbity, must have been financed with resources from the public treasury, and recalled that Castor de Mattos contracted the billboard with his own resources.

Currently, Castor de Mattos works at the MPF in Curitiba. The report was unable to contact him this Tuesday (21) to comment on the case.

When questioned, the MPF said only that “there is no point in taking measures before they have actually been taken”.