AGU challenges Toffoli’s decision that prohibits the Presidency’s commission from investigating Campos Neto

The Attorney General’s Office (AGU), the government’s legal arm, filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court (STF) this Monday, the 9th, to try to reverse the decision of Minister Dias Toffoli who ordered the suspension of three administrative procedures opened by the Ethics Committee of the Presidency of the Republic to investigate the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, for maintaining an offshore company abroad.

The AGU asks that the minister reconsider his own decision or send the case for judgment in the Supreme Court plenary.

In his decision, Toffoli justified that the case had already been analyzed by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), which ruled out investigating the president of the BC, considering that there were not enough elements to open a criminal investigation.

The AGU states that the PGR’s opinion “at no time attested to the non-existence of the fact or denial of authorship.” The Attorney General’s Office also argues in the appeal that the criminal and administrative spheres are independent and, therefore, the Attorney General’s Office’s statement should not bind the disciplinary procedures.

“There are facts that may not constitute criminal offenses, but may be considered disciplinary infractions or even unethical behavior – as is the case in the present case – which may lead to liability in the respective spheres. In other words, even if certain behaviors are not considered crimes, they may still have repercussions in other areas, hence the importance of independence between the instances,” says an excerpt from the appeal.

The proceedings had been resumed after the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1), in Brasília, authorized the continuation of the administrative investigations. The Court understood that directors of federal agencies are subject to oversight by the Ethics Committee of the Presidency. With Toffoli’s decision, the proceedings are at a standstill. In the words of the AGU, the committee was “abruptly interrupted”.

The information about the offshore company was revealed by an international consortium of investigative journalists, called the Pandora Papers. Although it is not illegal to keep money abroad, critics of these operations point to a conflict of interest in the exercise of public office.

Campos Netto claims to have closed his offshore company, Cor Assets, in 2020, 15 months after taking over the Central Bank. He also claims to have declared the existence of the offshore company to the Federal Revenue Service.