The minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), denied extending the nullity decreed in the money changer’s cases to the former governor of Rio de Janeiro and five other targets of the . Only the award-winning collaboration agreement signed by the money changer remained valid.
For lawyers who work on the Lava Jato developments at the STF, there was an understanding that the annulment of Youssef’s convictions, who was the pivot of the operation launched in 2014, could lead to one in the cases of other defendants, which has not materialized so far.
On July 15 of this year, Toffoli acknowledged that against Youssef and within the scope of the procedures linked to Lava Jato, albeit in the pre-procedural phase.
The minister understood that “the joint and coordinated action between the magistrate and the Public Prosecutor’s Office was proven to the detriment of Alberto Youssef’s right to defense and due legal process”. He cites the episode of illegal wiretapping in the money changer’s cell and the dialogues revealed by Operation Spoofing between the then judge (now senator) and members of the MPF.
Since then, in the same petition that benefited the money changer, seven other Lava Jato defendants claimed the extension of the decision for them, but only one had the request accepted by Toffoli, Marcus Pinto Rola, who worked as an executive at Empresa Industrial Técnica at the time of the complaint.
The minister rejected the requests of the former honorary consul of Greece in Brazil Konstantinos Kotronakis, the money changer Raphael Flores Rodriguez, the businessman Gerson Almada, former partner of the construction company Engevix, the money changer Carlos Habib Chater, the former governor of Rio de Janeiro Sérgio Cabral and the businessman Eduardo Hermelino Leite, former vice-president of the construction company Camargo Côrrea.
In Rola’s case, Toffoli responded to a defense request and ordered the exclusion of the evidence contained in the criminal action in which the executive is a defendant. The minister stated that the material would have been obtained during the execution of a search and seizure warrant against Youssef, which was annulled in July.
The other six defendants did not get any benefits.
Sérgio Cabral’s defense, carried out by the firm Proetti Advogados, claims that the illegalities carried out to the detriment of Youssef directly impacted the former governor of Rio de Janeiro and also understands that the money changer’s central role in the investigation “would already be enough to recognize Sergio Moro’s suspicion in the face of all the defendants in the operation”.
Within the scope of the Federal Court in Curitiba, Cabral was denounced in 2016 by the Federal Public Ministry due to alleged illegal activities in works at the (Petrochemical Complex of Rio de Janeiro), linked to Petrobras and today called the Boaventura Energy Complex.
“Given the centrality of the role played by Alberto Youssef in the processes arising from Operation Lava Jato, still in its first phase, the recognition of the aforementioned illegalities must be widespread. The blemish in the first phase of Operation Lava Jato leads to the recognition of the nullity of all 79 phases of the operation”, argued the lawyers.
Toffoli does not recognize, however, the impact of the annulment of Youssef’s lawsuits in relation to Cabral and also recalls that the money changer’s plea bargain agreement was not annulled.
According to the minister, the defense’s claim would require “an analysis of subjective elements foreign to those examined in Youssef’s petition. A similar argument was used by Toffoli to deny the other requests.
Some of the defendants are still appealing Toffoli’s decision so that the case can also be analyzed by the other ministers of the Second Panel.
