Brazil: judge orders Transparency International investigation into Lava Jato case

A judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil ordered this Monday the opening of an investigation into the role of International Transparency in the supposed “misappropriation of public resources“, within the scope of the anti-corruption operation Car washaccusation that the NGO denied.

Transparency International was accused of having participated in the irregular management of 2.3 billion reais (around 460 million dollars) of a fine imposed on the J&F holding, owner of the meat products giant JBS, according to the judge’s decision. José Antonio Dias Toffoli.

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The magistrate of Federal Court of Justice (STF) requested “investigate the possible misappropriation of public resources by Transparency International”, as part of an agreement between the NGO and the anti-corruption operation Car wash.

“The resources, instead of being allocated based on legal and budgetary norms, were allocated to a private institution (…) based in Berlin”, he added in the 14-page document.

Transparency International participated in the Brazilian Public Ministry in activities offight corruption”since 2014, when the Operation Lava Jato.

But the NGO rejected it as “false information” the allegations of having received or handled money recovered in cases of corruption and stated that his role was limited to technical advice.

“Transparency International has never received or would receive, directly or indirectly, any proceeds from the J&F group forgiveness agreement or any forgiveness agreement in Brazil“, he indicated in a note.

As part of a plea deal, the J&F Group accepted irregularities and agreed in 2017 to pay more than 10 billion reais, of which 2,300 were allocated to social projects. This last amount would have been managed by International Transparencyaccording to the magistrate.

In December, Dias Toffoli fully suspended the fine.

The new court decision came after a complaint from the deputy Rui Falcao of Workers’ Party (PT) of the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

PT members criticized Transparency International last week, after the publication of its annual world ranking on corruption. The NGO downgraded Brazil by 10 positions, citing Lula’s decisions and the suspension of the fine against J&F.

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“This International Transparency, transparency only has a name“, wrote the party president in X, Gleisi Hoffmann.

Due to the Lava Jato scandal, which broke out almost a decade ago, several companies, politicians and intermediaries were accused of participating in a network of bribes and fraudulent contracts with the state-owned company. Petrobras.

But since then several of the convictions have been annulled by the STF, which also declared “partial” to one of the protagonists of the operation, the former judge and former minister Sergio Moro.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.