The majority of the ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) voted to file a complaint of passive corruption, evasion of foreign exchange and money laundering against the Speaker of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), within the scope of Lava Jato.
The Lava Jato rapporteur in the Supreme Court, Minister Edson Fachin, was the first to vote for the filing of the complaint, due to insufficient evidence. So far, he has been followed by ministers Gilmar Mendes, Rosa Weber, Alexandre de Moraes, Ricardo Lewandowski, Cármen Lúcia, Dias Toffoli and Luís Roberto Barrosso.
The case is judged in the Virtual Plenary, and the other ministers have until 11:59 pm this Friday (11) to register their votes in the Supreme Court system.
Understand
The complaint was presented in 2020 by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), in a piece signed by the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Lindôra Araújo. In the play, she accused Lira of having received about R$ 1.6 million in bribes from the construction company Queiroz Galvão.
The value would have been diverted from works contracted by Petrobras, and the payment, made in 2012. On the other hand, Lira would have favored the contractor in bids from the ministries of the City and National Integration. The allocation of resources would have been carried out due to his status as leader of the PP in the Chamber and member of the allied base of the then government of Dilma Rousseff.
On the operational side, according to the complaint, the scheme would have been made possible by former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa, Francisco Ranulfo, then operational director at Queiroz Galvão, and businessman Leonardo Meirelles. The amounts paid would have been divided and transferred to accounts in Hong Kong by the money changer Alberto Youssef, who reported the case in a plea bargain.
In a note, lawyer Pierpaolo Bottini, who represents Lira, said that the deputy, contrary to what the prosecution says, was actually responsible for removing the PP from Paulo Roberto Costa and Alberto Youssef, which would have generated enmity between them. “Basing a complaint on the words of this money changer is to reward an act of revenge against someone who stood against his practices,” wrote the defender.
Wishes
In his vote, Fachin said that the PGR was not able to collect convincing evidence in the case, beyond merely circumstantial elements and the whistleblower’s word. “In summary, despite the fact that copies of contracts and invoices without ballast reasonably support the set of criminal facts, they do not minimally prove the directing of values to the appellant Arthur César Pereira de Lira”, wrote the rapporteur.
The minister added that “these records do not include any telephone record, bank statement or seized document that consolidates the alleged destination of the spurious payments in favor of the accused Arthur César Pereira de Lira”.
Even though the case was closed, Arthur Lira continues as a defendant due to another complaint, accepted by the First Panel of the STF in October of last year, and in which he was accused of receiving, in 2012, R$ 106 thousand in bribes in cash from the then president of Companhia Brasileira de Transportes Urbanos (CBTU), Francisco Colombo, in exchange for keeping him in office.
