One of the contractors cited in the request to the STF is Odebrecht, the target of investigations on suspicion of corruption in countries other than Lava Jato.| Photo: Bienvenido Velaso/EFE

The Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), Communist parties of Brazil (PCdoB) and Solidarity parties asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to suspend the fines imposed on several companies involved in Operation Lava Jato agreed in leniency agreements (see full text). The action was distributed to Minister André Mendonça.

According to the request (ADPF 1051), filed on Wednesday (29) and released on Thursday (30), the parties claim that the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) had an “abusive” role in negotiating the agreements, generating penalties with amounts “too high” that put the continuity of companies at risk – mainly contractors involved in the investigations, such as Odebrecht, Queiroz Galvão, OAS and UTC, cited in the lawsuit.

For the subtitles, the agreements were signed in a “reproachable punitivism” before the Technical Cooperation Agreement (ACT), which systematizes rules for the procedure. Among the illicit acts, they say, are coercion, a “perverse” relationship between award-winning collaborations and leniency agreements, abuse in identifying the basis for calculating fines and inclusion of illicit facts considered lawful or of lesser gravity.

Still in the request, the parties claim that the MPF acted despite the competence attributed to the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) by the Anti-Corruption Law. According to the subtitles, the MPF would have called for itself all the leniency agreements, assuming exclusive competence to celebrate them and causing serious distortions in the pecuniary part of the agreements.

The MPF has not yet commented on the request made by the parties.