Money changer Alberto Youssef is arrested by decision of Lava Jato judge

The money changer Alberto Youssef was arrested by the Federal Police, this Monday (20), on the coast of Santa Catarina and will be taken to Curitiba. The preventive arrest warrant, on an urgent basis, was issued by the new judge of Operation Lava Jato, Eduardo Fernando Appio, from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba.

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The decision was taken as part of a process initiated by the Federal Revenue Service. According to the magistrate, “the tax report for criminal purposes by the Federal Revenue makes it clear that the accused did not return all the misappropriated amounts to the public coffers and that his current living conditions are totally incompatible with the situation of the vast majority of Brazilians”.

The judge also ordered Youssef to appear before him for a custody hearing on Tuesday (21). The hearing will be held by videoconference.

Youssef responds to a total of 28 cases, of which 13 are suspended for a period of 10 years at the request of the task force of the Federal Public Ministry of Paraná in Operation Lava Jato.

A Look, Alberto Youssef’s lawyer, Luís Gustavo Flores, said that Appio’s decision “completely ignored the terms of the Agreement ratified by the STF” and also mentioned the “existence of criminal enforcement records, where all the questions raised by the magistrate were debated and clarified”.

“Certainty of impunity”

The decision also records that Alberto Youssef “did not bother to update his address with this Federal Court of the 13th Federal Criminal Court of Curitiba, “which demonstrates total discredit to the Federal Justice of his country, as well as the certainty of impunity ”.

Judge Eduardo Appio recalls that Operation Lava Jato “demonstrated with absolute certainty that Alberto Youssef, in addition to multiple repeat offenders in economic crimes of money laundering over the last 20 years, became the central character of the mechanism that allowed the embezzlement of millions from the public coffers of state-owned companies”.

Also according to the judge, “a good part of this embezzled property, as proven in numerous criminal actions in this Court, was directed to the personal property of the investigated person”. And he also adds that “the Federal Revenue of Brazil indicates that Youssef was considered by the Federal Public Ministry of Paraná as one of the greatest money changers in the history of Brazil”.

Lava Jato Pivot

Alberto Youssef was one of the pivots in the installation of Operation Lavo, in 2014. He was arrested that year, by order of the then federal judge, now Senator Sergio Moro. The money changer is accused of having operated in the illegal exchange market and for paying bribes in Brazil and abroad. He was sentenced to more than 32 years in prison.

Still in 2014, the money changer signed a plea deal and, in exchange, had his sentence reduced to five years in a closed regime. In 2015, however, the agreement was revised and the money changer gained the right to serve a three-year prison term, two years and eight months of which would be in a closed regime and the final four months at home, with an ankle bracelet. In November 2016, he left the Federal Police prison in Curitiba.

According to the decision that culminated in the arrest of Youssef this Monday, “federal law 12,850 establishes that the accused can only benefit from the suspension of criminal actions if he meets certain requirements, one of which is to assume the condition of not committing a crime” . What did not happen, according to Judge Eduardo Appio, because the accused “did not return the amounts diverted to the public coffers”.