Mendonça denies filing of action against Eduardo Paes within the scope of Lava Jato

Minister André Mendonça, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), denied a request to close an action against Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD-RJ), of Rio de Janeiro, within the scope of the Operation Lava Jato investigations involving the former construction company Odebrecht (current Novonor).

The decision also affects federal deputy Pedro Paulo (PSD-RJ) in a process initiated in April 2017 that investigates alleged illegal donations to the parliamentarian’s campaign during the 2010 and 2014 elections, allegedly made possible by Paes.

Mendonça granted a period of 60 days for the Federal Police to complete the investigations. The defense of the mayor and federal deputy has been requesting archiving since 2021, but the minister considered more time needed to prepare the final report.

“The fact that the investigation remained at a standstill, awaiting decisions by the First Panel on six regulatory grievances, including decline, does not constitute just cause for the shelving of the investigations, especially when there are steps to be taken”, stated Mendonça in the decision taken on Monday (11) and made public this Tuesday (12) (see in full).

During the Lava-Jato investigations, whistleblowers from Odebrecht stated that Pedro Paulo and Eduardo Paes had received bribes for their electoral campaigns between 2010 and 2014, with amounts ranging from R$300,000 to R$15 million. The two politicians were investigated for corruption and money laundering.

Eduardo Paes and Pedro Paulo did not comment on the decision.

In September 2022, former minister Ricardo Lewandowski suspended the action after the annulment of the evidence of the leniency agreement with Odebrecht. He argued that the factual situation presented in the requests is similar to that of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), highlighting the incompetence of those responsible for the Lava-Jato investigations.

“It is clear that, when the Federal Supreme Court declared the incompetence of former judge Sérgio Moro for the trial of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, it also implicitly recognized the incompetence of the members of the Lava Jato task force responsible for the investigations and, in the end, for the presentation of the complaint”, wrote Lewandowski at the time.

More recently, also this Tuesday (12), the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) met with representatives of companies that signed leniency agreements to renegotiate the terms of the plea bargains following a decision by Mendonça.