2023-06-29 16:01:00
But once Minister Dias Toffoli, from the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF)declared invalid the evidence obtained from the parallel accounting of the Odebrechtwhich included the list of payment of bribes to public agents.
Now, the beneficiary of the decision is Paulo Baqueiro de Melo, former director of Odebrecht. It is the first time that the decision to annul the evidence benefits a confessed defendant of the Operation Lava Jato.
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Melo was a defendant in the 10th Federal Court of the Federal District in criminal action since 2019 for the crimes of corruption and money laundering.
The defense, in a petition to the STF, stated that the Court’s past decisions to annul the evidence obtained from Odebrecht’s spreadsheets — the Drousys and My Web Day B systems — should also be extended to the whistleblower.
Toffoli reiterated previous decisions on Operation Lava Jato — his and that of former minister Ricardo Lewandowski, retired in April — that investigations and complaints by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), in addition to the convictions themselves, are null because they are based on spreadsheets of Odebrecht, evidence deemed adulterated by the STF.
“The unworthiness of the evidence questioned by the claimant was placited in a decision of the Second Panel of the Federal Supreme Court – final and unappealable -, in view of the proven contamination of the evidentiary material collected by the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba”, wrote Toffoli, in the decision.
For this reason, the minister stated, “there is no way to conclude that the elements of conviction derived from the Drousys system, part of the Leniency Agreement [do delator]which lend support to the criminal action brought against the applicant, are null, not lending themselves, as a result, to subsidize the accusation”.
As a result, the evidence used in the leniency agreement will be annulled, which should also lead to the filing of the criminal action against Melo.
Paulo Baqueiro de Melo was director of Odebrecht and entered into a leniency agreement with the MPF | Photo: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
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