Grupo Galvão CEO arrested in new phase of Operation Car Wash

The Federal Police arrested in São Paulo today (Mar 27) Dario de Queiroz Galvão Filho, CEO and main shareholder of the construction company Grupo Galvão.

Guilherme Esteves de Jesus, accused by the Federal Public Prosecution Office of funneling bribes as part of a kickback scheme uncovered by police-launched Operation Car Wash, was also arrested.

The arrest orders were issued by Federal Judge Sérgio Moro, in charge of the operation, of which a new phase has recently started. The police also executed search and seizure warrants where the arrests took place.

On Wednesday (25), the companies Galvão Engenharia and Galvão Participações, linked to Grupo Galvão, filed for bankruptcy protection in Rio de Janeiro. In a statement to collaborators, suppliers, customers, business partners and shareholders, the firm announced that all the necessary measures are being taken to re-establish the company's financial and operational conditions and resume their activities.

Galvão Engenharia further stated that the current situation was aggravated by default on the part some of its main clients, among which Petrobras.

The preventive detention of Dario de Queiroz Filho was required by the Federal Public Prosecution Office. In the arrest warrant, Judge Sérgio Moro explains that it would be “strange” to uphold the preventive detention of Erton Fonseca, head of Galvão Engenharia's industrial division, and keep at liberty “the man whom judicial cognizance indicates as mastermind.”

As for Guilherme Esteves de Jesus, the judge noted that, apart from the evidence showing his direct involvement with corruption and money laundering, the fact that he took key documents away from the place where federal agents exercised search and seizure warrants on February 5 this year also played a significant role in the proceedings. Reportedly, he funneled $8 million worth of bribe money to senior executives from Petrobras and SeteBrasil, the firm that won a bid to build probes and transferred the production of part of the equipment to shipyards.

“Each shipyard had someone responsible for the bribe payments. Guilherme Esteves de Jesus was the middleman at the Jurong shipyard,” Moro stated.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira