Brasilia, Feb 1 (EFE).- After finding “collusion” between the judge and prosecutors, Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily suspended a 8.5 billion reais fine (US$1.7 billion) imposed on construction giant Odebrecht for two Lava Jato corruption cases.
The suspension is related to another ruling by the court in September 2023, which said that the verdict that sent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to prison on corruption charges related to the Lava Jato case was a “historic error” and that all the evidence that came out of the collaboration agreement with Odebrecht was illegally obtained by former judge Sergio Moro.
On Thursday, Judge José Antonio Dias Toffoli questioned the conditions that led Odebrecht to accept a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that included the payment of a multi-million dollar fine.
In his ruling, the judge said there was at least “reasonable doubt about the requirement of willingness” on the part of the company to sign the agreement that imposed the fine.
The Odebrecht plea bargain agreements signed in the context of Lava Jato in 2017 must now be reviewed by lower court judges.
Dias Toffoli cited the exchange of questionable messages between then-judge Sergio Moro and prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol regarding the Lava Jato operation, originally revealed by the investigative website The Intercept.
The court annulled the sentence against Lula in 2021, arguing that Moro and the prosecution had persecuted the Workers’ Party leader to prevent him from running against Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022). Moro went on to become Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
After the revelations, Odebrecht then asked the Supreme Court to “reevaluate” the agreements it made with prosecutors.
As a result of the scandal and the loss of contracts, Odebrecht changed its name to Novonor and in 2019 entered a judicial restructuring process for debts estimated at 80 billion reais (US$16.3 billion).
Dias Toffol also annulled evidence against former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala and former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glass for irregularities related to Lava Jato, considering it “contaminated.”
The Brazilian construction company confessed to the US Justice Department in 2016 that it distributed millions of dollars in bribes in nine Latin American countries, the United States and two African countries in exchange for infrastructure contracts.EFE
jmc/ics/mcd
