PF says he sees no reason to resume the case of illegal wiretaps – 07/24/2023 – Power

The General Coordination of Internal Affairs of the Federal Police, in Brasília, says it sees no reason to open a new investigation into the wiretaps found in 2014 in the cell of money changer Alberto Youssef, one of the pivots of Operation Lava Jato.

Before benefiting from an award-winning collaboration agreement signed with the MPF (Federal Public Prosecution Service) of Paraná, Youssef was imprisoned in a jail of the PF Superintendence in Curitiba.

According to PF delegate Álex Levi Bersan de Rezende, general coordinator of Internal Affairs, there has already been “intense scrutiny” on the matter and there are no new facts that justify the resumption of the case. “It was not possible to identify any new circumstances that would be able to reopen the closed criminal proceedings or even legitimize the initiation of a new police investigation”, he wrote.

The demonstration was filed on Friday (21) in the midst of a process that has been in progress since April at the 13th Court of Curitiba and in which Youssef’s defense asks for a full copy of all procedures already opened to investigate the case of illegal wiretaps.

The then judge of the Court, Eduardo Appio, accepted the request of Youssef’s defense, requesting copies of the investigations, and, later, upon receiving the material, also suggested that the PF of Paraná initiate a police inquiry.

“The elements found (…) allow us to state that there are concrete and documented indications about the commission of serious crimes”, wrote Appio at the time.

Upon receiving the magistrate’s communication, the PF Superintendence in Paraná forwarded the matter to Brasilia. The general coordinator of Internal Affairs of the PF said that there was no inertia and that since 2014 six disciplinary procedures and two criminal procedures have been instituted to investigate the situation of listening in the cell.

He also mentions a 2015 investigation into an environmental listening device installed in a light fixture on the second floor staircase of the PF Superintendence building in Curitiba.

“The conduct of managers of the Regional Superintendence of the Federal Police in Paraná, and of investigators of the Lava Jato operation, delegates and agents were analyzed.

Still according to the delegate, the evaluation of the intelligible content of the audios pointed to the lack of dialogues that “could be considered relevant or that could, in theory, be used against the interlocutors”.

Youssef’s defense is still waiting for a copy of the audio captured from the illegal wiretaps.

By asking for full access to all open procedures involving illegal wiretapping, Youssef’s defense tries to gather elements that can be used in the future to point out problems in the money changer’s award-winning collaboration agreement.

Any breach of Youssef’s whistleblower agreement could interfere with all Lava Jato lawsuits.

In his manifestation to the Federal Justice, the delegate Álex Levi Bersan de Rezende said that, although it is public and notorious that some actions and criminal convictions that occurred in the scope of the Lava Jato operation were annulled after the discovery of irregularities, there are no known elements “that indicate that all investigations and criminal actions have been affected by these or other stains”.

“Operation Lava Jato was not a monolith, it took place for years, generated the outbreak of numerous phases, involved several courts, different members of the MPF, federal police from different police stations, and not only from Curitiba, but also from Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília”, he defended.

At the 13th Court of Curitiba, the lawsuit filed by Youssef’s defense is no longer in the hands of Judge Appio, who was temporarily removed until the conclusion of a preliminary procedure that is being processed by the Corregedoria of TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region). He is suspected of having committed disciplinary infractions, in a case involving a federal judge of the regional Court, and could become the target of an administrative process.

The developments on the case of illegal wiretapping will be conducted by Judge Fábio Nunes de Martino, who has been replacing Appio since June 19.