Toffoli Forces Car Wash Task Force to Share All Data with The Attorney General
Supreme Court responded to the request of the Attorney General, who pointed out 'resistance' of attorneys to share information
Jul.10.2020 1:22PM
Fábio Fabrini
Matheus Teixeira
BRASÍLIA
Supreme Court president, Justice Dias Toffoli, ruled that the Car Wash Operation attorneys must send all the investigation data collected by the operation to the Attorney General's Office.
The order applies to the task forces in Curitiba, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo. It represents a significant defeat for the prosecutors who make up the team.
The minister gave the decision on a preliminary (provisional) basis on Wednesday (8), at the request of the PGR, which reported to the Supreme Court that it faced "resistance to the sharing and supervision of information" by the public prosecutors.
The Attorney General's Office also reported to the Supreme Court that there is suspicion that Lava Jato is circumventing the law to investigate congressional leader Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), and Senate leader Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP), who have a privileged forum.
More:
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/brazil/2020/07/toffoli-forces-car-wash-task-force-to-share-all-data-with-the-attorney-general.shtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsen
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Wikipedia on Brazil's Operation Car Wash:
Operation Car Wash (Portuguese: Operação Lava Jato) is an ongoing criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil, Curitiba Branch. It began in March 2014 and was initially headed by investigative judge[a] Sérgio Moro, and in 2019 by Judge Luiz Antônio Bonat [pt].[13] It has resulted in more than a thousand warrants of various types. According to the Operation Car Wash task force, investigations implicate administrative members of the state-owned oil company Petrobras, politicians from Brazil's largest parties (including presidents of the Republic), presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate, state governors, and businessmen from large Brazilian companies. The Federal Police consider it the largest corruption investigation in the country's history.
Originally a money laundering investigation, it expanded to cover allegations of corruption at Petrobras, where executives allegedly accepted bribes in return for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices. This criminal scheme was initially known as Petrolão (Portuguese for "big oil" ) because of the Petrobras scandal.[14] The investigation is called "Operation Car Wash" because it was first uncovered at a car wash in Brasília.
The aim of the investigation is to ascertain the extent of a money laundering scheme, estimated by the Regional Superintendent of the Federal Police of Paraná State in 2015 at R$6.4–42.8 billion (US$2–13 billion), largely through the embezzlement of Petrobras funds.[15][16]:60[10]:16 It has included more than a thousand warrants for search and seizure, temporary and preventive detention, and plea bargaining, against business figures and politicians in numerous parties.
At least eleven other countries were involved, mostly in Latin America, and the Brazilian company Odebrecht was deeply implicated.[17]
Investigators indicted and jailed some well-known politicians, including former presidents Fernando Collor de Mello, Michel Temer and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The scandal seemed to challenge the impunity of politicians and business leaders and the structural corruption in the political and economic system that had prevailed until then. This was initially thought possible because of the independence of the judiciary.[18]
However documents leaked in June 2019 to Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept suggest that Judge Sergio Moro may have been partial in his decisions,[19] passing on 'advice, investigative leads, and inside information to the prosecutors'[20] to 'prevent Lula’s Workers’ Party from winning' the 2018 elections.[21] Several top jurisprudence authorities and experts in the world have reacted to the leaks by describing former President Lula as a political prisoner and calling for his release.[22][23] Da Silva was ultimately released on November 8, 2019.[24]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Car_Wash