20/09/2024 – 19:07
Justice Edson Fachin of the Federal Supreme Court has decided to investigate the fate of the assets handed over by whistleblower Alberto Youssef to Operation Lava Jato as part of his plea bargain. Fachin ordered the Federal Court of Curitiba to hand over documents relating to the destination of the items, after considering that information already provided on payments and returns made by the money changer lacked “greater precision”.
The minister’s ruling, signed on Tuesday the 17th, gives the 13th Federal Criminal Court of Curitiba – the origin of Lava Jato – five days to clarify information about Youssef’s plea bargain.
Fachin wants to know to whom or which bodies the amounts relating to the objects that Youssef handed over to the authorities were transferred as compensation for damages caused by the cartel and corruption scheme set up at Petrobras.
The Federal Court must indicate the procedural steps followed in each case, whether there are any ongoing steps and what “missing measures” are. Fachin demands proof of each step.
The data is linked to the assets that Youssef gave up “irrevocably and irrevocably, as they are proceeds of crime”.
Here is the list:
– All assets in the name of GFD that are managed by Web Hotéis Empreendimentos Ltda.
– Ownership of 74 autonomous units that are part of the Hotel Aparecida Condominium, as well as the Web Hotel Aparecida development installed therein, located in Aparecida, in the interior of São Paulo.
– 37.23% of the property where the Web Hotel Salvador development is located
– Web Hotel Príncipe da Enseada development and the respective property, located in Porto Seguro-BA;
– six independent units that make up the Blue Tree Premium Hotel, located in Londrina (PR)
– 34.88% of the shares of the company Hotel Jahu SA and an ideal portion of the property where the enterprise is located
– 50% of the land formed by Lots 8 and 9, Block F, of the Granjas Reunidas Subdivision, Ipitangá, located in the municipality of Lauro de Freitas-BA, with an area of 4,800m2, valued at R$ 5.3 million and the project that is being built on it, called “Dual Medical & Business Empresarial Odonto Médico”
– Volvo XC60 vehicle, armored, license plate BBB 6244, year 2011
– Mercedes-Benz CLS 500 vehicle, license plate BCT 0050, year 2006
– armored Tiguan 2.0 TSI vehicle, license plate FLR 4044, year 2013/2014
– property located in Camaçari, with an approximate area of 3000m², whose contract is seized as part of Operation Lava Jato
According to Fachin, several alienation procedures were instituted and court accounts were opened for the proper allocation of the assets. However, for the minister, the clarifications provided by the Federal Court of Curitiba “do not make the link between the object of the waiver, the registration records of the proceedings instituted, the court account opened and the allocations already implemented so clear”.
“It appears that the information regarding the destination of the reparation payments resulting from this award-winning collaboration agreement made by the collaborator lacks greater precision”, he warned.
The decision was issued as part of the petition in which Youssef’s plea bargain was approved. The procedure is being monitored by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and by Fachin, the Lava Jato rapporteur at the Supreme Court.
In May, Fachin had already ordered the Federal Court in Curitiba to provide information on Youssef’s assets still under alienation and indicate whether, in addition to the allocations already made and communicated in the records, there are still court accounts with available funds, linked to the whistleblower.
The Attorney General’s Office analyzed the information provided by the Curitiba enforcement court and found that there were still pending issues regarding the sale of Youssef’s assets and the allocation of resources from his plea bargain.
The PGR suggested waiting for the completion of the investigations and a possible new request for information to the Federal Court. Fachin agreed.
The minister’s decision was signed amid expectations of investigations by the National Justice Council into a wiretap installed in Youssef’s cell, where he was held in March 2014, at the start of Operation Lava Jato.
The investigation generated tension and expectations about a possible request to annul the money changer’s plea bargain, depending on the CNJ’s findings.
In July, the Council authorized Youssef’s defense to access the content of the wiretap installed in his cell at the Federal Police jail. The wiretap was allegedly in operation between March 17 and 28 of that year.
The judge who granted access – Guilherme Roman Borges, substitute judge of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba – indicated that it was “indispensable” that Youssef and his lawyer had access to the documents, considering the possibility that the money changer’s defense could use the evidence to review or annul the terms of his plea bargain. The audio recordings are still under analysis.
Lava Jato is also still in the sights of the CNJ. The agency is conducting proceedings into the conduct of judges who worked on the Operation. The investigations are based on findings from an extraordinary investigation carried out at the birth of Lava Jato.
The CNJ found, for example, irregularities in the approval and management of collaboration and leniency agreements. The agency saw ‘chaotic management’ in the control of fines negotiated with whistleblowers and companies.
For Judge Eduardo Appio, who took over the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba after former judge Sérgio Moro resigned from his position to be appointed Minister of Justice in the Bolsonaro government, ‘Federal Justice in the 4th Region needs to improve the management system for assets and values seized during Operation Lava Jato’.
“There was never any effective control, external or internal. The CNJ itself indicates ‘fraudulent management’”, says Appio.
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