Tacla Duran accuses former Lava Jato prosecutor of bribery – 05/10/2023 – Power

Lawyer Rodrigo Tacla Duran, defendant on charges of money laundering under Operation Lava Jato, told the Federal Court that former Federal Attorney Carlos Fernando Santos Lima received a kind of allowance from lawyers to avoid lawsuits against money changers.

In testimony on Tuesday (9), he claimed that it was a “protection fee” and that he learned about it through the Chinese merchant Wu-Yu Sheng, who died in 2020.

According to Duran, Sheng sent US$750,000 to the office of lawyer Antonio Figueiredo Basto (former lawyer of money changer Alberto Youssef) so that the money, in cash, could be delivered to Santos Lima. “And in fact, Sheng was never sued here in Curitiba. Afterwards he said he felt betrayed because he was sued in Rio de Janeiro”, said the lawyer about the supposed “protection fee”.

He stated that he learned of three payments, totaling US$750,000, made between May and June 2016: US$400,000, US$230,000 and US$120,000. “It was a charge for non-criminal prosecution of these people who participated in the allowance, including Sheng, who paid this amount every month for a long time,” said Duran.

The report was made on Tuesday afternoon during testimony given by video to federal judge Eduardo Appio, from the 13th Court of Curitiba, in the wake of a petition filed by the defense of former vice president of Ecuador Jorge Glas, who is being prosecuted in that country based on accusations made by former Odebrecht employees.

Glas’ lawyer, Leandro Ponzo, was interested in learning what Duran knew about the negotiations for Odebrecht’s award-winning collaboration agreements. Duran worked for the contractor, but was unable to reach an agreement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Duran has maintained that the MPF is persecuting him and that people close to former federal judge Sergio Moro (now a senator of União Brasil for Paraná) tried to extort him during his negotiation with prosecutors. Moro denies it and claims that the lawyer speaks without evidence about matters already investigated and archived by the Attorney General’s Office.

wanted by Sheet, Santos Lima and Figueiredo Basto rejected Duran’s reports. “Lie, like everything he has been saying, without any proof and changing the stories and names, in the last five years”, says the former Lava Jato prosecutor.

Lawyer Figueiredo Basto says he will sue Duran for slanderous denunciation. “Did he hear about it from someone who has already died? I don’t know who that Sheng is, I just found out about his existence. Every day he [Duran] brings a new lie. I challenge him to prove it”, says Basto.

“My account is declared at Bancen and Federal Revenue. My secrecy is available, as I have always done and will do. I am not afraid of any investigation”, adds Figueiredo Basto.

On Tuesday night, Judge Appio decided to forward Duran’s report to the PF. “In view of the immense gravity of the reported allegedly criminal facts, a copy of this hearing is forwarded to the Superintendent of the Federal Police of Paraná for the measures it deems appropriate”, signs the magistrate, who took over the remaining processes of Lava Jato in Curitiba in the beginning of the year.