Toffoli suspends payment of fine imposed on Odebrecht after leniency agreement

Minister Dias Toffoli, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), suspended payment of the fine of R$ 3.8 billion (the amount that still remains to be paid out of the total of R$ 8.5 billion) imposed on the construction company Odebrecht after the leniency agreement was signed. within the scope of Operation Lava Jato investigations. The suspension comes after a request made by the group’s new controller, Novonor.

The decision comes five months after the minister himself annulled all the evidence collected after the agreement and which was collected in the Drousys and My Web Day B systems and the evidence found during Operation Spoofing, which discovered an organization that invaded the Telegram accounts of Brazilian authorities and people related to Operation Lava Jato — the case became known as “vaza Jato”.

In the decision handed down on Wednesday (31st) and made public this Thursday (1st), and that the People’s Gazette had access, Toffoli states that the information obtained so far by Operation Spoofing indicates that there was a “collusion between the prosecuting court and the prosecuting body” to conduct the investigation that “suited such bodies, and not the defense itself”.

Toffoli refers to messages attributed to former judge and current senator Sergio Moro (União-PR), former prosecutor and former deputy Deltan Dallagnol and other members of the Lava Jato task force.

“I believe that, in principle, there is, at the very least, reasonable doubt about the requirement of the applicant’s voluntariness in signing the leniency agreement with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office that imposed her financial obligations, which justifies, for now, the suspension of payments, as required by Novonor,” Toffoli wrote.

Dias Toffoli also stated that “there are messages in which former Attorney Deltan Dallagnol provides confidential and unofficial information to former Judge Sérgio Moro regarding investigations related to Novonor executives. On the same occasion, former judge Sérgio Moro also instructed the member of the Operation Lava Jato Task Force to make a request for the arrest of the person being investigated in question. [Fernando Migliaccio da Silva, ex-executivo da Odebrecht]”.

Also according to Toffoli, Odebrecht/Novonor may request a reassessment of the terms of the leniency agreement from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) and the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) “ making it possible to correct the illegalities and abuses identified, carried out by the authorities of the Justice system”.

“The applicant must be offered conditions [Novonor] to assess, given the available elements collected in Operation Spoofing, whether illegalities were in fact committed”, added the minister in a note through the press office.

A People’s GazetteMoro stated that Lava Jato was recognized nationally and internationally as one of the largest anti-corruption operations in the world, and that “there was no illicit action”.

“Odebrecht’s collaboration agreement was approved by the Superior Council of the MPF and its validity was later recognized by the DPU/CGU. It should be noted that, at the same time, dozens of collaboration agreements signed with Odebrecht executives were approved by the STF itself”, he pointed out .

Deltan Dallagnol countered the decision and stated that Odebrecht’s leniency agreement was signed together with authorities from Brazil, the United States and Switzerland and that the company confessed to the crimes committed, admitting “to having paid bribes in more than 10 countries in Latin America ”.

“The United States Department of Justice called the Odebrecht case the ‘largest foreign bribery case in history.’ Brazil is officially a corruption paradise”, he said.

Novonor was approached by People’s Gazette to comment on the decision and stated that he will not comment.

Second fine suspended by Toffoli

The decision taken by Toffoli this Thursday (1st) is the second of leniency agreements signed within the scope of the Operation Lava Jato investigations. At the end of last year, he suspended payment of the R$10.3 billion fine imposed on the J&F group as a result of Operation Greenfield.

J&F was also involved in the Sépsis, Cui Bono and Carne Fraca operations, and signed the leniency agreement in 2017. Toffoli justified the decision by stating that there is a “reasonable doubt” about the voluntary nature of the agreement signed.

As with the decision in favor of Odebrecht/Novonor, Toffoli stated that “there would have been collusion” between Moro and the MPF prosecutors. He also granted access to archives of leaked messages between authorities and members of Lava Jato.

Toffoli ignored the PF’s opinion on evidence

In the decision, Toffoli disregarded a 321-page report from the Federal Police that attested to the integrity of the data delivered by the company to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) in 2017. The information contained in these documents involved bribe payments to hundreds of politicians, lobbyists and money changers.

The report, prepared in 2018, was requested by Moro to certify the validity of the evidence in one of the cases against the then former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The PT member was accused of corruption and money laundering related to the donation of land by Odebrecht to the Lula Institute.

Toffoli’s decision also raised concern in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the so-called “rich club” that Brazil sought to enter during the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

A working group from the organization was in Brazil last year and found that, of the 60 reports of foreign bribery identified since the beginning of Lava Jato in 2014, only 28 were effectively investigated.

In their conclusions, OECD examiners expressed concern that Brazil may have overlooked or underused important documents during investigations, including corporate reports, referrals from foreign authorities and information compiled by the group.

The entity warned of the need for Brazil to improve its detection and engagement efforts between government agencies, highlighting the importance of being more proactive in detecting and reacting to allegations of foreign bribery from other sources.