Court accepts report against 27 people probed over corruption
Federal Judge Sérgio Moro
Federal Judge Sérgio Moro accepted on Monday (Mar 23) the report submitted by the Federal Public Prosecution Office (MPF) against 27 people investigated under Operation Car Wash. Among them is treasurer João Vaccari Neto, from the ruling Workers' Party (PT); former Petrobras directors Renato Duque, Pedro Barusco, and Paulo Roberto Costa; foreign exchange dealer Alberto Youssef; and executives from construction companies. All are now facing charges of money embezzlement, corruption, and criminal conspiracy.
In the report, prosecutors uncover new instances of money embezzled through Petrobras contracts. This time, the works implicated were those at the Getúlio Vargas Refinery, in Araucária, in the southern state of Paraná; and at the Paulínia Refinery, in São Paulo.
Upon initiating the proceedings, Moro announced that “there is documentary evidence that some of the bribe money was siphoned off as part of the electoral donations aimed at the Workers' Party, which was allegedly done at the request of Duque and Vaccari.”
According to the judge, proving that legal donations were made is no reason to conceal the illicit source of funds. “Making electoral donations with funds arising from wrongdoing, duly registered as they may be, still falls under the crime of money embezzlement, at least theoretically. Furthermore, if the donations were arranged as part of the kickbacks aimed at the services department, as the MPF states, João Vaccari is also implicated, for the crime of passive corruption,” the judge noted.
Vaccari's defense argues that the treasurer did not take part in any scheme aimed at collecting bribes for his party's benefit, and that all donations requested by Vaccari were legal and transparently conducted.
In a note released last week after MPF's report was submitted, Vaccari's lawyers had already denied that the donations aimed at the PT had arisen from palm-greasing. Likewise, Renato Duque's defense denies that he had taken bribes and made transactions using money in secret bank accounts overseas.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Court accepts report against 27 people probed over corruption
