The 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, where the main cases of Operation Lava Jato were processed, validated an agreement for the government of Monaco to keep half of the R$ 162 million confiscated from .
The proposed agreement, which is being processed under secrecy, was presented to the Court by , and aims to unlock the release of resources.
These amounts are in offshore accounts in the principality that belonged to Duque, and their destination remains undefined. Previous court decisions determined that the money be sent to Petrobras, as the main victim of contract deviations.
Request from the Public Ministry sent to the Federal Court of Paraná and obtained by Sheet requested urgency in the assessment and deliberation of the draft of an agreement with Monegasque authorities so that part of the amounts would be transferred to Brazil and the other part would remain with the government of Monaco.
The allocation of these resources may be the subject of disputes because, in previous moments, judges at the Lava Jato court in Curitiba decided that the amount confiscated from Duque should be allocated to , the victim of the irregularities.
Both the judge at the time (now a senator for União Brasil-PR) and the magistrate (who was promoted and is now part of the Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region) made decisions in this regard.
Other operation agreements have also been the subject of controversy in the Supreme Court. In 2019, the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) decided against the jurisdiction of the 13th Federal Court of Paraná in the United States.
The court had approved an agreement for the private management of these resources. The minister wrote in his decision that the body did not have the competence to reach a compromise on the allocation of the money. He also stated that the Lava Jato prosecutors in Paraná also lacked the responsibilities for this management.
In the same year, Moraes himself validated an agreement to direct the resources arising from these fines to the Amazon and investments in education.
In the case of the values confiscated from Duque, the (Attorney General’s Office) stated that the MPF in Paraná should send Monaco’s proposal to the Court, so that the analysis could be carried out.
The Judiciary decided to accept the proposal from the Federal Public Ministry, which allows, according to the body, “the subsequent elaboration of the final agreement to be provided by the PGR”.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Paraná understood that it was up to the 13th Federal Court itself to validate the Monaco agreement. “The competence for the repatriation and destination of confiscated assets, in accordance with the international agreement, lies with the Court that issued the confiscation decision subject to execution abroad”, says the body, in its request.
“Thus, it is the 13th Federal Court that has the competence to assess and deliberate on the security measures that implement the blocking of assets abroad.”
The MPF also states that “the sharing proposal, if approved, will be signed by the Attorney General’s Office and the similar authorities in Monaco, as well as the other acts requested by the MPF’s Secretariat for International Cooperation, such as the new establishment of international legal collaboration.”
When contacted by the report, the Federal Public Ministry in Paraná said that the process is confidential and, therefore, will not comment. Duque’s defense stated that it will respond only in the case.
He was one of the main targets of Lava Jato and also one of its longest-serving prisoners. Last year, a federal judge in Paraná ordered him to return to prison because he still had to serve a custodial sentence of 39 years, 2 months and 20 days, in a closed regime.
This penalty referred to four convictions that have already become final, that is, when there is no longer any possibility of appeal. They involve passive crimes and money laundering. This year, he migrated to the semi-open regime.
Duque had two other stints in prison before: between November and December 2014; and from March 2015 until March 2020. Afterwards, he used an electronic ankle bracelet until April 2023.
Throughout his prison term, he proposed to cooperate with the justice system, confessed to having committed crimes and agreed to give up the money in accounts abroad. He also made accusations against today’s president Lula (PT).
In November, the STF minister asked to take the judgment of an appeal by Duque against all the acts of the Operation Lava Jato and Moro task force to the in-person plenary session of the Second Panel. There is still no trial date for the case.
