A billionaire dispute in different courts between financial managers and Walter Faria, owner of the Itaipava and Petra beers, has mobilized in recent years at least ten relatives of members of, who act as lawyers in the causes.
Among those who defend or defend any side of the dispute are relatives of the ministers of the (Supreme Federal Court), and.
Also participating in the process is a son of the minister, vice president of the (Superior Court of Justice).
The relatives of the ministers act or worked as lawyers on one of the sides of proceedings that are being processed at the STJ, the court of Paraná and the Federal Court in Brasilia. The cause has the possibility of reaching the Supreme.
If this happens, it can cause a flood of ministers’ impediments in actions. The reason is that, according to the legislation, a magistrate cannot judge a cause in which his spouse or relative has acted.
Walter Faria and entrepreneurs Renato Mazzucchelli and Ruy del Gaiso have been fighting since 2019 for the control of Imcopa, Paranaense soy derivatives production company that has been undergoing judicial recovery since 2013. Recovery credits have been estimated at more than $ 3.3 billion.
The former accuses the others of having given “a blow” during his arrest in 2019. He was investigated for suspected of maintaining a bribery payment structure and acting in collusion with 2022, Minister Gilmar Mendes annulled decisions made at lower courts and determined the filing of criminal proceedings.
Faria says she had an agreement with Mazzucchelli, Gaiso and Naede de Almeida, her former right-handed way, that they would invest their resources at Imcopa so that he would not appear publicly as interested. According to Faria, the agreed was that he would become the owner of imcopa credits, but was prevented from exercising this right through an alleged fraudulent change in contract.
The others deny any maneuver and claim that it would do is the one who tries to modify previously awake terms. Mazzucchelli and Gaiso say that Faria agreed that the operation would be headed by them and gave up in a letter to rescue his investment before maturity, stipulated for 2025.
The legal fight has several branches. In the STJ, the responsibility of each court is discussed to make specific decisions about the imbroglio and judicial recovery.
Last year, Minister Antonio Carlos Ferreira overthrew determinations made in Paraná, understanding that they invaded the jurisdiction of the Federal Court in the DF. The case should still be taken to the collegiate analysis in the STJ.
Currently, Imcopa is administered by the Petrópolis Group, which had favorable decisions in Brasilia and Paraná.
In the judicial dispute, the family of STF Minister Gilmar Mendes has representatives on both sides involved.
In September last year, his daughter was included as one of the Petrópolis lawyers in the process that is being processed in the STJ. A month later, she left the case, and Maria da Conceição Sabo Mendes and Pedro Anísio Sabo Mendes, sons of federal judge Italo Mendes, who was president of the TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region) and is the cousin of the Supreme Minister.
Maria Carolina Feitosa Tarelo, stepdaughter of Gilmar Mendes and daughter of lawyer Guiomar Mendes, wife of the minister, was also part of the Petrópolis lawyers team in the dispute.
On the other side of the process are the representatives of Crowned, a company created in Luxembourg and who was used to receive Faria resources and invest in imcopa credits.
Guiomar Mendes and his daughter Daniele, sister of Maria Carolina (Petrópolis lawyer) and also the minister’s stepdaughter, were hired to compose the Crowned lawyer team. The two work for Sergio Bermudes. Valeska Zanin Martins, wife of Cristiano Zanin, STF Minister, was also integrated into the group.
Crowned, however, also crosses a fight for control. On Friday (16), one side of the dispute, lawyer Ricardo Bocchino Ferrari, requested the dismissal of the entire legal team of the company for Tiago Limongi to take the case in the STJ.
Mazzucchelli and Del Gaiso’s R2C Holdings has filed a contestation that Ferrari does not own Crowned and has no power to replace lawyers. The play is signed by Guiomar, Daniele, Valeska and other lawyers.
In addition to those already mentioned, the Petrópolis Group also has as lawyers in the process Karine Nunes Marques and Viviane Barci de Moraes, respectively sister of Kassio Nunes Marques and wife of Alexandre de Moraes, STF ministers, as showed by, Sheetand Luis Felipe Salomão Filho, son of Luis Felipe Salomão, Minister of the STJ.
Sought, the STF and STJ ministers declined to comment on the subject. Also sought after, Valeska Zanin Martins, Karine Nunes Marques, Viviane Barci de Moraes and Salomão Filho did not speak.
Guiomar Mendes states that, as in other areas, children of lawyers often seek to pursue legal careers and that family relations do not influence the professional performances of those who work in the case in question.
She also says that she did not act while Maria Carolina (Petrópolis lawyer) in the dispute, as her daughter left the case in 2023. Finally, she says she continues to work in the process, regardless of the attempt of dismissal by Ricardo Ferrari.
Pedro and Maria Sabo Mendes claim that they work as lawyers from Petrópolis since before the dispute with Crowned (in his case, since 2009; in hers, more than five years ago) and that when they started working in the group’s processes there was no family intersection. They also claim that there are no possible interference in the exercise of work.
In a statement, Mazzucchelli and Del Gaiso’s R2C, which constituted Crowned in Luxembourg with lawyer Ricardo Ferrari, states that “it took into account the remarkable legal knowledge of all hired offices, active in processes of judicial recovery and strategic litigation and involved in the most complex demands in Brazil and abroad.”
In a statement, the Petrópolis Group says that the process that discusses imcopa control in Brasilia “has already been sentenced by the Federal Court and all requests from the Petrópolis Group against Ruy del Gaiso and Renato Mazzucchelli were upheld” and that Ferrari, “after becoming aware of the crimes committed by the pair, exchanged the lawyers who represented the company.”
“Soon, these days, Crowned is not represented by any lawyer who is related to STF or STJ minister,” the note says.
“All hiring [de advogados] They were made by the Petrópolis Group taking into account exclusively technical criteria. None of these hires occurred after the dispute subject to the matter, but they were all made at a previous time, “says the company.
