The president of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, João Batista Moreira, overturned a court decision that had favored businessman Carlos Suarez, known as the “gas king”, and validated the contracts for thermoelectric plants purchased by Âmbar, a company owned by the Joesley brothers. and Wesley Batista.
In June 2024, Âmbar purchased 13 plants from Eletrobras (;) for R$4.7 billion. The plants were not paid for the energy that was sold to Amazonas Energia, as the distributor is in deficit and has not honored its financial commitments. When making the purchase, Âmbar assumed the burden of this loss.
Three days later, the government published a provisional measure transferring the cost of this energy to Brazilian consumers, through the transformation of contracts, and providing relief to Amazonas Energia’s cash flow. The decision led experts to point to favoritism for the Batista brothers’ company – the government denies this.
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The National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel) did not approve the transformation of the contracts – the process ended in a draw between the directors of the regulatory agency -, but the Federal Court of first instance in Amazonas determined the approval of the negotiation, as well as the transfer of Amazonas Energy for the Batista brothers.
Cigás, a gas company in Amazonas, went to court asking to have the right to give consent to the transformation of contracts, which could even make the deal unfeasible, claiming that it needed to be heard because it is the gas distributor in the State and suffers impacts on contracts . Cigás is controlled by the State of Amazonas and Termogás, Suárez’s company.
The first instance of the Federal Court of Amazonas denied Cigás’ request. At the beginning of the week, judge Ney Bello, from the second instance, had won the case for the company.
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Now, in a new decision, the president of the TRF overturned the judge’s sentence, reversing Suarez’s victory in the process.
