A judge from Brazil's supreme court ordered this Monday to open an investigation into the role of Transparency International in the alleged “misappropriation of public resources“, within the framework of the Lava Jato anti-corruption operation, an accusation that the NGO denied.
(In context: What is Lava Jato, the scandal for which Efromovich is being investigated?)
Transparency International was accused of having participated in the irregular management of 2.3 billion reais (about $460 million) of a fine imposed on the J&F holding company, owner of the meat products giant JBS, according to the decision of Judge Jose Antonio Dias Toffoli.
The vote on the reforms in Congress takes place within the framework of new revelations from Operation Lava Jato on the Petrobras case.
Joédson Alves / EFE
The judge of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) requested “to investigate the possible misappropriation of public resources by Transparency International”, as part of an agreement between the NGO and the Lava Jato anti-corruption operation. “The resources, instead of being allocated based on legal and budgetary regulations, were allocated to a private institution (…) based in Berlin”he added in the 14-page document.
Transparency International has assisted the Brazilian Public Ministry in “combat corruption” activities since 2014, when Operation was launched.
Lava Jato. But the NGO rejected as “false information” the allegations of having received or handled money recovered in corruption cases and stated that its role was limited to technical advice.
“Transparency International never received or would receive, directly or indirectly, any resources from the J&F group forgiveness agreement or from any forgiveness agreement in Brazil”he indicated in a note.
(Also read: Lava Jato, the origin of the Odebrecht scandal)
As part of an agreement with the prosecution, the J&F group accepted irregularities and agreed in 2017 to pay more than 10 billion reais, of which 2,300 million were allocated to social projects. This last amount would have been managed by Transparency International, according to the magistrate.
In December, Dias Toffoli suspended the entire fine. The new judicial decision occurred after a complaint by deputy Rui Falcao of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party (PT).
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. “This Transparency International, transparency only has the name”party president Gleisi Hoffmann wrote in X.
Due to the Lava Jato scandal, which broke out almost a decade ago, various companies, politicians and intermediaries were accused of participating in a network of bribery and rigged contracts with the state-owned Petrobras. But since then several of the convictions have been annulled by the STF, which also declared one of the protagonists of the operation, former judge and former minister Sergio Moro, “partial.”
AFP
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