Moro says he does not fear investigation into alleged fraud in plea bargain

Senator Sergio Moro (União Brasil-PR) made a post on social media this Monday, 15th, stating that he “does not fear any investigation”. The statement by the former Operation Lava-Jato judge comes after the opening of an investigation to investigate the parliamentarian's conduct when he was a federal judge became public. The investigation order came from the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Dias Toffoli.

Moro is accused of committing abuses in the award-winning collaboration agreement of former Paraná state deputy and businessman Antônio Celso Garcia, known as Tony Garcia.

“I do not fear any investigation, as I have always acted correctly and based on the law to combat crime, but I regret the opening of an investigation into facts from almost 20 years ago and to which my defense did not have access, based on the confused fantasies of a convicted criminal and without elements to support them”, wrote Moro on the social network X, formerly Twitter.

Established at the request of the Federal Police (PF) and the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the investigation was authorized on December 19, in a confidential order from Toffoli. The information was revealed by GloboNews and confirmed by Estadão.

In a note, Moro informed that he was unaware of the decision and stated that “there was no irregularity in the process almost twenty years ago”.

“It is necessary to initiate an investigation in this Federal Supreme Court to investigate the facts narrated, in the exact terms in which they were claimed, as long as the plausibility of investigating conduct, in theory, classified as a crime is demonstrated”, wrote the minister .

The PGR states that the businessman may have been a victim of illegal restraint.

Tony Garcia claims to have been threatened and coerced into closing a complaint and claims that he started working as an “undercover agent” for Moro, including in the illegal investigation of authorities with jurisdiction, starting in 2004.

The businessman's collaboration agreement remained confidential for years at the 13th Federal Criminal Court of Curitiba. The files were forwarded to the STF when judge Eduardo Appio, a declared critic of Lava-Jato's methods, took over the remaining processes of the operation. He sent the case to the Supreme Court to investigate alleged irregularities reported by the defense.

Tony Garcia closed the first statement in the wake of an investigation into fraud by the Garibaldi Consortium, – before, therefore, the birth of Lava Jato. He states, however, that it was used by Sergio Moro to investigate judges, judges from the Court of Justice of Paraná, counselors from the State Court of Auditors and ministers from the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) in cases that were unrelated to the process . Moro denies irregularities or clandestine investigations into authorities.

Other investigations

Furthermore, the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that administers and supervises the Judiciary, is investigating whether Sergio Moro used the judiciary for political-partisan purposes and whether he committed irregularities in the management of fines from the whistleblower and leniency agreements approved in Lava Jet.

As shown by the Estadãoby ordering an investigation into the former judge, minister Luis Felipe Salomão, national inspector of the CNJ, begins to pave the way for a possible revocation of his mandate, based on the same precedent that left the impeached deputy Deltan Dallagnol, former coordinator of the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba.

Moro also faces an electoral lawsuit over spending in the 2022 campaign. The PT, which is bringing the lawsuit, plans to ask for the case to be investigated in the criminal sphere.