The (National Council of Justice) opened this Tuesday (11), unanimously, administrative disciplinary proceedings against two judges of the TJ-MS (Court of Justice of Mato Grosso do Sul) in exchange for .
The body followed the vote of Minister Mauro Campbell, national inspector of Justice, who ordered the opening of proceedings against Marcos José de Brito Rodrigues and Sideni Soncini Pimentel.
Both were removed from court after the , which broke out in October last year. Pimentel retired last month, shortly before the CNJ judgment, but the opening of proceedings against him was maintained.
According to Campbell, the investigations that have been carried out so far indicate that, among the suspicions involving the two magistrates, are cattle acquisition operations.
“Although Marcos Brito owns a farm with around a thousand hectares in Mato Grosso do Sul, the significant movement of resources in kind, the acquisition of cattle and agricultural inputs without bank correspondence and the payment of leases in cash constitute robust evidence of the concealment of resources received illicitly”, said Campbell, when reading his vote.
Regarding Sideni Pimentel, he states that “cattle acquisition operations under obscure circumstances indicated that the defendant quite possibly also masked the receipt of undue advantages through agricultural operations.”
The administrative process may result in sanctions against judges, such as compulsory retirement.
Campell stated, in his vote, that there is evidence that Brito “most likely made decisions upon receiving undue advantage” and “acted in the sponsorship of third-party interests alongside other magistrates, taking undue advantage of his position as ombudsman.”
Furthermore, the dismissed judge is suspected of judging cases in a “situation of clear suspicion” and functional secrecy.
In Pimentel’s case, suspicions also involve the multiplication of his children’s assets and dialogue with a lawyer who is suspected of being the main operator of the scheme for selling decisions in the MS court.
Speaking before the reading of the magistrate’s vote, Brito’s lawyer, Thalita Paim de Lima, said that the Federal Police report that supports the trial deals with assumptions and that her client did not commit any irregularities.
According to her, there are “no decisions highlighted by the investigation were made in a collegiate manner and submitted to the higher courts, so there is nothing irregular and no evidence of the judgments”.
Pimentel’s lawyer, Otávio Maziero Serafim, asked for the case to be archived at the CNJ “because the judge had voluntarily requested his retirement” to demonstrate that he did not intend to interfere in the investigations. He also said that he will prove his innocence in the criminal case.
Operation Ultima Ratio
Last year, Operation Ultima Ratio carried out search and seizure warrants ordered by the (Superior Court of Justice) against retired magistrates, lawyers and judges.
The breaches of communications secrecy that underpinned the operation indicate that those of the dismissed judges.
The majority of these investigated children are lawyers, who, according to the PF, would use their offices to circumvent mechanisms for tracking the flow of money.
The investigation, which is still ongoing, investigates suspicions of crimes of corruption in the sale of judicial decisions, money laundering, criminal organization, extortion and falsification of public deeds in the Judiciary.
At the home of retired judge Julio Cardoso, one of the targets of the operation, approximately R$3 million in cash were seized by the Federal Police. His defense was not located.
The case went to the (Supreme Federal Court) after the indication of the involvement of Andreson de Oliveira Gonçalves, a lobbyist who worked in STJ offices, in the TJ-MS scheme. It was reported by the minister.
However, after verifying that there are no authorities with special jurisdiction in the Supreme Court involved in this investigation, Zanin returned the investigation to the STJ itself — the court that has the power to criminally prosecute judges.
