The (Superior Court of Justice) condemned three TRT-1 (Regional Labor Court of the 1st Region) magistrates accused of participating in a criminal group that, in exchange for bribes, would act to include companies and social organizations in a special plan for the execution of the Labor Court.
It stated it in complaint that the bribe was operationalized by hiring law firms nominated by four Labor Court judges. According to the investigators, the scheme benefited social organizations and companies with labor debts and credits to receive from the State Government, where the TRT-1 headquarters is.
These four magistrates remain removed from court until the decision becomes definitive. The collegiate accompanied the rapporteur’s vote, Minister Nancy Andrighi, who, after analyzing the 180,000 pages, concluded the responsibility of the accused in the illicit scheme.
The complaint says that Judge Marcos Pinto da Cruz would have sought Edmar Santos, a former state secretary of health, to ensure that instead of the State directly paying organizations, the amounts were deposited in court to pay the labor debts, by including entities in the special execution plan.
In return, organizations were required to hire law firms indicated by the judges, who passed on part of the fees to the criminal group.
The performance of the criminal organization would also have had the support of two former TRT-1 presidents, Fernando Antonio Zorzenon da Silva and José da Fonseca Martins Junior.
By majority, the Special Court condemned Marcos Pinto da Cruz in a closed regime for the crimes of criminal association, embezzlement, passive and active corruption and money laundering. In the case of José da Fonseca Martins Junior and Fernando Antonio Zorzenon da Silva, the penalties were 16 years and three months and ten years and five months, respectively.
Magistrate Antonio Carlos de Azevedo Rodrigues was acquitted of all accusations unanimously.
According to Minister Nancy Andrighi, the criminal organization used the payment of attorney’s fees as a means to conceal the bribe. For her, the evidence produced show that the improper advantages were offered to former governor Wilson Witzel and former secretary Edmar Santos, with the aim of deflecting public money to private interests.
The former governor and former secretary were included in the complaint, but were left out. After the dismemberment of the process, only the four magistrates were in the STJ, due to the forum by prerogative of function.
The minister stated that the amounts arising from the crimes were transformed into apparently lawful assets by paying attorney’s fees. These values, after the initial operation, were quickly transferred to Marcos Pinto da Cruz and, later, taken from the banking system to be passed on to the accused José da Fonseca Martins Junior and the other suspects.
According to the minister, the crime was not restricted to isolated acts, but was meticulously planned and executed in a highly articulated scheme for the obtaining and concealment of illicit resources.
“To the same extent, it is not possible to defend the existence of a mere contest of people, as it is not being simple sum of integral parts for the commitment of crime,” said Nancy Andrighi.
