05/03/2024 – 21:39
The Federal Court has blocked yet another criminal action opened against the former PT treasurer, João Vaccari Neto, in the wake of Lava Jato. He had been denounced in Operation Rizoma, an offshoot of the investigation that looked into suspected embezzlement in the pension funds of Correios – Postalis – and the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro).
Judge Maria do Carmo Cardoso, from the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, in Brasília, extended to Vaccari the effects of a decision that benefited other defendants in the same case.
When filing the habeas corpus petition, lawyer Luiz Flávio Borges D'Urso, who defends the former PT treasurer, claimed that the complaint was based only on the testimonies of whistleblowers, without elements to prove the reports.
“There was no just cause for the criminal action and we sought, in the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, the suspension of this process, aiming to end the illegal constraint to which Mr. Vaccari was subjected”, states the criminalist.
The decision was carried out this Tuesday, 5th, by judge David Wilson de Abreu Pardo, from the 12th Criminal Court of the DF. “To ensure that the Secretariat complies with the order issued, in relation to the present case, making the necessary records and communications to the INI, in view of the suspension of this criminal action, and excluding the beneficiaries of the defendant side of this criminal action”, he wrote.
The Operation Rizoma investigation led to the indictment of 16 people for money laundering, currency evasion, passive and active corruption, influence peddling and criminal organization. Businessman Arthur Mario Pinheiro Machado, King Arthur, was appointed as leader of a scheme to embezzle pension funds. Vaccari was accused of receiving R$1 million in bribes from the businessman. They have always denied the accusations.
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