Minister Og Fernandes, of the (Superior Court of Justice), terminated the plea bargain agreement of the dismissed judge, and her son, Vasco Rusciolelli, for non-compliance with the agreement.
The decision is under judicial secrecy and was obtained by Sheet. Sandra Inês’ statement was and mentions 68 people, including other magistrates, lawyers and businesspeople.
The evidence of collaboration remains valid, and can be used against both. They will lose the benefits negotiated in the agreement. The minister also ordered the loss of the fine already paid and the assets handed over as a result of the agreement. Sandra Inês’ defense says it will question the decision.
Investigated by , which investigates the sale of judicial decisions in land disputes, Sandra Inês and Vasco were the target of a controlled action by another whistleblower, who handed over to the judge’s son R$250,000 in cash, paid by an agricultural producer interested in a cause in TJ-BA.
The Federal Public Ministry requested the termination because “the collaborators stopped cooperating with the investigations, not attending the hearings designated in the investigations (…) without suitable justification”.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, “the collaborators informed that, if there was insistence in their hearings, they would make use of the right to silence”.
When speaking to the Court about the request for termination, Sandra Inês justified that the Public Ministry “violated the confidentiality clauses of the agreement by allowing the leak of its content” — something that the STJ itself already understood did not occur.
In the decision, Minister Og Fernandes says that since the beginning of the agreement, validated in 2021, the judge and her son obtained benefits such as the right to house arrest, but “they failed to effectively collaborate with public authorities in investigating the facts narrated”.
They resisted, for example, paying portions of the fine provided for in the agreement and selling assets, such as a property in Praia do Forte (in the Bahian municipality of Mata de São João) valued at R$4.5 million. They also stopped attending hearings.
“Speaking out about his resistance to cooperating with the investigations, [Sandra Inês] expressly states that he decided to enter into this agreement only to help his son, without actually confessing to committing any crime in his statements”, says Og’s decision.
“This is, in the words of the defense itself, a defensive ‘change of strategy’. There is no doubt, therefore, about the clear intention of the collaborators to breach the terms of the plea bargain agreement”, the document continues, highlighting that termination of the agreement “does not invalidate the evidence produced based on the statements made.”
When contacted, Sandra Inês’ defense said that “it is already preparing a procedural challenge against the termination decision”.
In a statement, her lawyers say that she had already requested the termination of the agreement “due to a breach of confidentiality” by the authorities.
“She was not the one who initiated the breach of the contract, but, it seems, she will be held responsible”, says the note signed by lawyers Oberdan Costa, Maria Luiza Diniz and Samara Léda.
“In a telephone interception, the judge, talking to people who the police allege were her associates, stated: ‘I never used my pen for negotiations’. So far, the prosecution has not justified why an alleged seller of decisions would make such a statement to someone , according to the accusation, would collaborate in a scheme”, says the note.
“If this statement were false, to whom and for what purpose would she lie? Furthermore, there is no financial evidence that proves the receipt of the millionaire amounts mentioned, and the cash was not even in her home.”
On the 6th, on charges of criminal organization, passive corruption and money laundering.
The court maintained the judge’s removal until the trial of the criminal case is concluded. The STJ also received complaints against four other people.
Sandra Inês and Vasco’s award-winning collaboration has 39 attachments in total. Among those mentioned are 12 TJ-BA judges (including one retired) and 12 judges.
In addition, 15 lawyers and 16 TJ-BA employees were mentioned. There are also more than a dozen children and relatives of judges and those being investigated who participated, according to the statement, in some of the situations reported in the collaboration.
The whistleblowers also cite at least one politician with a mandate in Congress, businesspeople and public agents such as the former Secretary of Public Security of Bahia, the Federal Police delegate Maurício Teles Barbosa.
There were suspicions of judicial favoring land grabbing in an area of 366 thousand hectares in the extreme west of the state, close to the border with Piauí — hence the name of the operation. The land is five times the size of Salvador.
Later, it was discovered that the area subject to supposedly purchased decisions was close to 800 thousand hectares. As from the beginning it involved suspicion of judges, who have a special jurisdiction, the operation is being processed at the STJ.
