Search operations against suspects involved in one at the (Superior Court of Justice) have been on hiatus since last October. At the time, a report was filed that caused internal disagreements within the corporation and dissatisfaction among authorities regarding the direction of the investigations.
Under the responsibility of the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court), the investigations advanced into suspicions in different courts in the country, including negotiation of votes and decisions by magistrates, in addition to the leak of confidential information.
Throughout the second half of last year, however, the investigations were divided and the overt actions, with arrests and advances on other possible investigative flanks, were interrupted.
The last important public move by Sisamnes, as the operation was called, was the return to prison of the suspect of being the main operator of negotiating decisions, .
At the time, he was under house arrest after losing 30 kg in a federal prison. The PF, however, said that he willingly went hungry to be transferred to his home. Zanin ordered his return to prison in November, in a decision that the defense said was “surprising and unfounded.”
Lawyers are currently awaiting judgment on an appeal regarding a request for freedom or house arrest for Andreson. They also ask that the lobbyist’s wife, lawyer Mirian Gonçalves, be able to visit him. She is also being investigated and is under precautionary measures in the interior of Mato Grosso.
The analysis should take place in February, in a trial in the First Panel of the Supreme Court.
The first phase of the operation on the sale of decisions at the STJ was launched in November 2024 and targeted servers suspected of participating in the scheme.
For some time, in addition to the suspicions in the STJ, investigations into other courts also began to be processed in the Supreme Court, such as those involving schemes in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Tocantins.
Zanin, however, understood that the first two investigations should not continue at the Supreme Court, and sent them to the rapporteur of STJ ministers. In the case of Tocantins, the minister is awaiting the presentation of a report from the PF. Afterwards, you can also withdraw the case from the STF.
The STJ is the court where judges from the Courts of Justice have a special forum to be prosecuted and judged.
Last October, the delegate, Marco Bontempo, delivered a report with the main conclusions of the investigation and left the case, justifying physical and mental exhaustion resulting from stress.
The report announced the need to open new investigations into companies, including corporate giants – which deny having committed irregularities. He also pointed out suspicions about people linked to STJ ministers and other magistrates.
The report also said that, in addition to those already being investigated, they participated in the scheme for selling court decisions and suggested expanding the investigations to find out who these people are.
This document caused disagreements within the PF itself. At the agency, some of the people who followed the investigations thought that the delegate reached conclusions that did not yet have robust evidence.
This worsened a situation that had already been bothering ministers from the STJ itself. Mentions of their decisions during the investigations generated and also those of the STF.
Amid these dissatisfactions, Zanin decided to open a specific investigation to investigate the leak to the press of the PF report on the case.
In November, a demonstration by the (Attorney General’s Office) also took place.
In it, the attorney general raised doubts regarding suspicions highlighted in the report, mainly regarding coded messages and the participation of a property management company investigated in the case.
In general, however, he stated that “the criminal hypotheses highlighted by the PF are credible” and asked Zanin to give more time to provide clarifications on points not yet concluded in the investigation.
“It is recommended that the Federal Police clearly delimit the points of the investigation that still require additional production of evidence, or that have ongoing investigations or analyzes pending completion,” said the PGR.
When contacted, the Federal Police stated that “a new delegate was appointed to preside over the investigations, which are ongoing.”
Sisamnes was established to investigate irregularities committed in STJ offices and mentions the reproduction of “typical patterns of action by criminal organizations”.
The three employees already identified worked with court ministers and are among the main people being investigated in the operation. Their defenses have always denied wrongdoing.
