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Operation Car Wash ( pt, Operação Lava Jato) was a criminal investigation by the Federal Police of Brazil's
Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area ...
branch. It began in March 2014 and was initially headed by
investigative judge In an inquisitorial system of law, the examining magistrate (also called investigating magistrate, inquisitorial magistrate, or investigating judge) is a judge who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases m ...
in France, but unlike judges in the common law systems in most Anglo-Saxon countries, an ''
investigative judge In an inquisitorial system of law, the examining magistrate (also called investigating magistrate, inquisitorial magistrate, or investigating judge) is a judge who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases m ...
'' is both part of the judicial system and carries out pre-trial investigations before prosecution.
Sérgio Moro Sergio Fernando Moro (; born 1 August 1972) is a Brazilian jurist, former federal judge, college professor and politician. He was elected to be a member of the Federal Senate for Paraná in October 2022. In 2015 he gained national attention a ...
, and in 2019 by Judge . It has resulted in more than a thousand warrants of various types. According to the Operation Car Wash task force, investigations implicate administrative members of the state-owned oil company Petrobras, politicians from Brazil's largest parties (including presidents of the Republic), presidents of the
Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
and the Federal Senate, state governors, and businessmen from large Brazilian companies. The Federal Police consider it the largest corruption investigation in the country's history. The taskforce was officially disbanded on 1 February 2021. Originally a money laundering investigation, it expanded to cover allegations of corruption at Petrobras, where executives allegedly accepted
bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
s in return for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices. This criminal scheme was initially known as (Portuguese for "big oil") because of the Petrobras scandal. The investigation is called "Operation Car Wash" because it was first uncovered at a car wash in
Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek o ...
. The aim of the investigation was to ascertain the extent of a money laundering scheme, estimated by the Regional Superintendent of the Federal Police of Paraná State in 2015 at (US$– billion), largely through the embezzlement of Petrobras funds. It has included more than a thousand warrants for search and seizure, temporary and preventive detention, and plea bargaining, against business figures and politicians in numerous parties. At least eleven other countries were involved, mostly in Latin America, and the Brazilian company Odebrecht was deeply implicated.Kurtenbach, S., & Nolte, D. (2017). Latin America's Fight against Corruption: The End of Impunity. GIGA Focus Lateinamerika, (03). Investigators indicted and jailed some well-known politicians, including former presidents Fernando Collor de Mello, Michel Temer and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The scandal seemed to challenge the impunity of politicians and business leaders and the structural corruption in the political and economic system that had prevailed until then. This was initially thought possible because of the independence of the judiciary. Documents leaked in June 2019 to Glenn Greenwald at '' The Intercept'' suggest that Moro may have been partial in his decisions, passing on "advice, investigative leads, and inside information to the prosecutors" to "prevent Lula's Workers' Party from winning" the
2018 Brazilian general election General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff round was held ...
. Several top jurisprudence authorities and experts in the world have reacted to the leaks by describing former president Lula as a political prisoner and calling for his release. Lula was ultimately released on 8 November 2019, and
Brazil's Supreme Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for const ...
ruled Moro was biased against Lula in March 2021. Lula went on to win the 2022 Brazilian general election.


Investigation

The initial accusation came from businessman Hermes Magnus in 2008, who reported an attempt to launder money through his company, Dunel Indústria e Comércio, a manufacturer of electronic components. Ensuing investigations culminated in the identification of four large criminal rings, headed by: , Alberto Youssef, , and Raul Henrique Srour. Investigation at first focused on the four black-market currency dealers and improper payments to Alberto Youssef by companies who had won contracts at Petrobras' Abreu and Lima refinery. After they discovered that '' doleiro'' (black-market dealer) Alberto Youssef had acquired a Range Rover Evoque for , a former director of Petrobras, the investigation expanded nationwide. Once he was charged, Costa agreed to provide evidence to the investigation. A newly adopted law introduced 'rewarded collaboration' () a type of plea bargaining involving sentence reductions for defendants who cooperate in investigations. Costa's deposition showed which political parties controlled Petrobras. It also led to a wave of arrests. Fernando Soares, also known as "Fernando Baiano," a businessman and lobbyist, was allegedly the connection between major Brazilian construction firms and the government formed by the Workers’ Party (PT) and
Brazilian Democratic Movement The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
(PMDB). After Costa and Soares, many others agreed to collaborate with the prosecution; between 2014 and February 2016, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office () filed 37 criminal charges against 179 people, mostly politicians and businessmen.Fausto, S. (2017). The Lengthy Brazilian Crisis Is Not Yet Over. Issue Brief, 2. In December 2017, nearly three hundred people had been accused of crimes in the scandal. After
Marcelo Odebrecht Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht (; born 18 October 1968) is a Brazilian businessman and the former CEO of Odebrecht, a diversified Brazilian conglomerate. In March 2016, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for paying more than $30 million in bribes. ...
, grandson of the company founder, was sentenced to 19 years in prison, he and other Odebrecht executives were, due to the sentence reduction incentives of the 'rewarded collaboration' law, willing to act as witnesses and to give information about the broader corruption scheme. Odebrecht had a secret branch used to make illegal payments in several Latin American countries, from
Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...
in Venezuela to Ricardo Martinelli in Panama. Odebrecht was given fines totalling $2.6 billion by authorities of Brazil, Switzerland, and the United States after the company admitted bribing officials in twelve countries with some $788 million. Costa and Youssef entered into a plea bargain with prosecutors and the scope of the investigation widened to nine major Brazilian construction firms:
Camargo Correa Camargo may refer to: Places Bolivia: * Camargo, Chuquisaca Brazil: * Camargo, Rio Grande do Sul Mexico: * Camargo, Chihuahua * Camargo, Tamaulipas Spain: * Camargo, Cantabria United States of America: * Camargo, Illinois * Camargo, Kentucky ...
, , , Odebrecht, , , , , and , as well as politicians involved with Petrobras. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who chaired the board of Petrobras from 2003 to 2010, denied knowledge of any wrongdoing. The
Brazilian Supreme Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for const ...
authorized the investigation of 48 current and former legislators, including former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in March 2016.
Eduardo Cunha Eduardo Cosentino da Cunha (born 29 September 1958), is a Brazilian politician and radio host, born in Rio de Janeiro. He was President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil from February 2015 until May 5, 2016, when he was removed from the posi ...
, president of the
Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
from 2015 to 2016, was convicted of taking approximately $40 million in bribes and hiding funds in secret bank accounts and sentenced to 15 years in prison. On 19 January 2017, a small plane carrying Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki crashed into the sea near the tourist city of
Paraty Paraty (or Parati, ) is a preserved Portuguese colonial (1500–1822) and Brazilian Imperial (1822–1889) municipality with a population of about 43,000. Indeed, the name "Paraty" originates from the local Guaianá Indians' Indigenous Tupi ...
in the state of Rio de Janeiro, killing the magistrate and four other people. Zavascki had been handling Operation Car Wash corruption trials. A '' Miami Herald'' report noted in September 2017 that when Operation Car Wash began in 2014, fewer than 10,000 electronic monitoring bracelets were in use to enforce
home detention In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
sentences; by September 2017 the number had ballooned to more than 24,000.


Effect on Petrobras

Petrobras delayed reporting its annual financial results for 2014, and in April 2015 released "audited financial statements" showing $2.1 billion in bribes and a total of almost $17 billion in write-downs due to
graft Graft or grafting may refer to: *Graft (politics), a form of political corruption *Graft, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Graft-De Rijp Science and technology * Graft (surgery), a surgical procedure *Grafting, the joining of plant t ...
and overvalued
asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...
s, which the company characterized as a "conservative" estimate. Had the report been delayed by another week, Petrobras bondholders would have had the right to demand early repayment. Petrobras also suspended dividend payments for 2015. Due in part to the impact of the scandal, as well as to its high debt burden and the low price of oil, Petrobras was also forced to cut
capital expenditure Capital expenditure or capital expense (capex or CAPEX) is the money an organization or corporate entity spends to buy, maintain, or improve its fixed assets, such as buildings, vehicles, equipment, or land. It is considered a capital expenditure ...
s and announced it would sell $13.7 billion in assets over the following two years. The conviction of Aldemir Bendine, Petrobras' former CEO, on corruption charges was annulled by the Supreme Federal Court in 2019 due to objections to the trial procedure.


Domestic politics

* The treasurer of the Workers' Party (PT), João Vaccari Neto, was arrested for receiving "irregular donations". * The former chief of staff for President Lula,
José Dirceu José Dirceu (; born March 16, 1946), in full José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva, is a former Brazilian politician. His political rights were suspended by the Brazilian House of Representatives and he was found guilty by the Brazilian Supreme Cour ...
, was arrested for organising a large part of the bribery. * The
President of the Chamber of Deputies President of the Chamber of Deputies may refer to: * List of presidents of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies * List of presidents of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia * President of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) * President of the Chamber of Dep ...
,
Eduardo Cunha Eduardo Cosentino da Cunha (born 29 September 1958), is a Brazilian politician and radio host, born in Rio de Janeiro. He was President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil from February 2015 until May 5, 2016, when he was removed from the posi ...
(
PMDB The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
- RJ), investigated for receiving more than US$40 million in
kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickback ...
and bribes. * Former president and current Senator Fernando Collor de Mello, of the Christian-conservative
Christian Labour Party Act ( pt, Agir), formerly named National Reconstruction Party ( pt, Partido da Reconstrução Nacional; PRN) and Christian Labour Party ( pt, Partido Trabalhista Cristão; PTC), is a political party in Brazil. The party was founded in 1985 as ...
(PTC), was charged with corruption. On 8 March 2016,
Marcelo Odebrecht Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht (; born 18 October 1968) is a Brazilian businessman and the former CEO of Odebrecht, a diversified Brazilian conglomerate. In March 2016, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for paying more than $30 million in bribes. ...
, CEO of Odebrecht and grandson of the company's founder, was sentenced to 19 years in prison after being convicted of paying more than $30 million in bribes to Petrobras executives. In April 2018, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – after having been sentenced for passive corruption and money laundering in relation to a luxury apartment in
Guarujá Guarujá (; ) is a municipality in the São Paulo state of Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Baixada Santista. The population is 322,750 (2020 est.) in an area of . This place name comes from the Tupi language, and means "narrow pat ...
received from Grupo OAS – entered prison in
Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in Brazil's South Region. The Curitiba Metropolitan area ...
to serve his 12 year sentence. However, illegal communications between Car Wash prosecutors and its lead judge came to light in mid-2019, in which the parties suggested that their prosecutorial motive was to prevent Lula's re-election. There were calls to release the former president (see Leaked conversations below). As a result, he was released on 8 November 2019 after a supreme court ruling. On 3 July 2018, failed Brazilian billionaire
Eike Batista Eike Fuhrken Batista da Silva (; born 3 November 1956) is a Brazilian-German serial entrepreneur who made and lost a fortune in mining and oil and gas industries. He engaged in a quest to promote Brazil's infrastructure with large-scale project ...
was convicted of bribing former Rio de Janeiro governor Sérgio Cabral for state government contracts, having paid Cabral US$16.6 million, and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.


Political parties


Lula and the Worker's Party

Emílio Odebrecht said in a written report to the
Attorney General of Brazil The Attorney General Office ( pt, Advocacia-Geral da União, AGU) is a cabinet-level position in the Brazilian government charged with advising the Executive Branch and representing the federal government of Brazil in legal proceedings egally kn ...
's Office (PGR) that he discussed donations to Worker's Party's (PT) campaigns with former PT president Lula. Financial support, according to the contractor, came even before Lula became president.
Marcelo Odebrecht Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht (; born 18 October 1968) is a Brazilian businessman and the former CEO of Odebrecht, a diversified Brazilian conglomerate. In March 2016, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for paying more than $30 million in bribes. ...
said that the "Amigo" account for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was created in 2010 with a balance of R$40 million. In his statement, he said he gave the money to Antonio Palocci, former Finance Minister and Rousseff's chief of staff, who had been the PT contact with Odebrecht since the prior administration, when and Pedro Novis had handled payments. He said that in the middle of 2010, at the end of the Lula administration, he knew that Dilma Rousseff was going to take over and that the balance of the account would be "managed by her at her request". Thus, he set apart a sum that would be destined exclusively for the former president. He said that Lula never asked directly for donations and that everything was done through Palocci, but it became clear that the donations were ultimately for the former president. On 4 March 2016, Lula was questioned for three hours as part of the fraud inquiry into the dealings of Petrobras, and his house raided by federal police agents. Lula, who left office in 2011, denied allegations of corruption. Police said they had evidence that Lula, 70, had received
kickbacks A kickback is a form of negotiated bribery in which a commission is paid to the bribe-taker in exchange for services rendered. Generally speaking, the remuneration (money, goods, or services handed over) is negotiated ahead of time. The kickback ...
. Lula's institute called actions against him "arbitrary, illegal and unjustifiable", since he had been cooperating with the investigations. Lula, convicted of accepting bribes worth 3.7 million
real Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...
s (1.2 million dollars), was sentenced on 12 July to nine and a half years in prison. He appealed the sentence to the Federal Regional Court-4, which increased his sentence to twelve years and a month. On 5 April 2018, Moro ordered his imprisonment, and he surrendered two days later.


Temer and Brazilian Democratic Movement

The plea bargain testimony by Odebrecht Engenharia Industrial's former president Márcio Faria da Silva said that on 15 July 2010, President Michel Temer led a meeting about an agreement to pay approximately US$40 million in bribes to the
Brazilian Democratic Movement The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
in exchange for contracts with the international Board of Directors of Petrobras. According to Faria, Temer, who at the time was a candidate for vice-president on Dilma Rousseff's ticket, delegated to
Eduardo Cunha Eduardo Cosentino da Cunha (born 29 September 1958), is a Brazilian politician and radio host, born in Rio de Janeiro. He was President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil from February 2015 until May 5, 2016, when he was removed from the posi ...
and Henrique Eduardo Alves, then deputies and present at the meeting, the task of making the payments which represented 5% of the contract's value. The meeting took place in Temer's political office in São Paulo. He did not discuss any details about the financial agreement, limiting himself to trivial conversations about politics.


Aécio and Brazilian Social Democracy Party

Marcelo Odebrecht said in his plea bargain testimony that the Social Democratic (PSDB) party, led by Senator
Aécio Neves Aécio Neves da Cunha (; born 10 March 1960) is a Brazilian economist, politician and former president of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). He was the 17th Governor of Minas Gerais from 1 January 2003 to 31 March 2010, and is curren ...
(PSDB-MG), received at least 50 million reals in exchange for favoring the business contractor in energy deals. He said that improper payments were made due to business deals with two state companies:
Furnas Furnas is a civil parish in the municipality of Povoação on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Azores. The population in 2011 was 1,439, in an area of 34.43 km2. The parish is one of the largest in the island and in the Azores. ...
and Cemig. The first federal investigation was under the leadership of , an ally of Neves, in the early years of the Lula administration (2003–2005). The second state-run investigation was influenced by Aécio during the period when the PSDB was in power in Minas Gerais (2003–2014).


Political families

Odebrecht also discussed family involvement. In eleven cases under the jurisdiction of the
Supreme Federal Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for const ...
(STF), investigations implicate father and son, husband and wife, or siblings. The president of the Chamber,
Rodrigo Maia Rodrigo Felinto Ibarra Epitácio Maia (born 12 June 1970) is a Brazilian politician and served as President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil between July 2016 and February 2021. Maia is the son of former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Cesar Maia and ...
(DEM-RJ), has the most family members implicated. Maia was charged in the same investigation as his father, councilor and former mayor Cesar Maia. According to the Odebrecht testimony, Rodrigo obtained cash resources both for his father's campaign and also for himself. The Brazilian Democratic Movement leader of the Senate,
Renan Calheiros José Renan Vasconcelos Calheiros (; born 16 September 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former President of the Senate of Brazil. He has represented the state of Alagoas in the senate as a member of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party si ...
(AL), was charged along with his son, the governor of Alagoas Renan Filho (PMDB), in two inquiries. They allegedly participated in an agreement to divert resources from work on the Canal do Sertão and also received resources in the form of a slush fund they refer to as a '' caixa 2''. In the case of the father, two other inquiries are ongoing. The governor of
Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", re ...
, Robinson Faria (PSD), was charged along with his son, federal deputy Fábio Faria (PSD-RN). The two allegedly received contributions through a slush fund in return for defending Odebrecht Ambiental's interests in the area of basic sanitation in the state. The president of the PMDB, Senator Romero Jucá (RR), and his son Rodrigo Jucá both figured in one of the inquiries. The father helped Odebrecht negotiate a
provisional measure A provisional measure ( pt, medida provisória) is a legal act in Brazil through which the President of Brazil can, "in important and urgent cases", enact laws effective for a maximum of 60 days without approval by the National Congress. The p ...
and obtained an electoral donation of 150,000 reals for his son. Romero Jucá was also charged in four other inquiries. A father asking for a contribution for a son was also why former minister
José Dirceu José Dirceu (; born March 16, 1946), in full José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva, is a former Brazilian politician. His political rights were suspended by the Brazilian House of Representatives and he was found guilty by the Brazilian Supreme Cour ...
was investigated along with , federal deputy. The father was able to raise the money for Zeca in exchange for the acting for Odebrecht interests in the government. In the
Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
, the sons Antônio Britto (PSD-BA) and (PMDB-GO) were also investigated along with their parents, (PTB-BA) and Maguito Vilela (PMDB-GO). Senator
Kátia Abreu Kátia Regina de Abreu (born 2 February 1962) is a Brazilian politician. She has been serving as the Senator from Tocantins since 2007. She was a congresswoman elected by the Tocantins State from 2003 to 2007. She is a member of Progressistas, si ...
(PMDB-TO) was accompanied by her husband Moisés Pinto Gomes, who brokered cash payments for her in 2014. Senator Vanessa Grazziotin (PCdoB-AM) is accompanied by her husband, , said to have asked for slush fund cash donations for her. Federal Deputy (PT-SC) also requested slush funds for the Blumenau municipal campaign in 2012 of his wife, state deputy Ana Paula Lima (PT-SC). The Viana brothers of Acre, Governor
Tião Viana Sebastião Afonso Viana Macedo Neves, better known as Tião Viana ( Rio Branco, February 9, 1961), is a doctor and Brazilian politician. He was formerly Governor of Acre and is a member of the Workers' Party. He served as interim President of t ...
(PT) and Senator Jorge Viana (PT), were also charged together. Jorge asked for and Odebrecht paid R$1.5 million in cash two for Tião's campaign in 2010.


Politicians and public figures implicated


Payments to Brazilian senators

The names of the senators cited in the report were:


= Payments to federal deputies

= The names of the federal deputies cited in the Odebrecht statement were:


Other Brazilian public figures

The names in the Odebrecht statement include other politicians and former public officials:


Dilma Rousseff's 2014 presidential campaign

Marcelo Odebrecht detailed the payment of 100 million reals for the 2014 presidential campaign of Rousseff, requested by then-minister Guido Mantega. The payment was allegedly tied to the approval of Provisional Measure 613, which assisted
Braskem Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company headquartered in São Paulo. The company is the largest petrochemical company in Latin America and has become a major player in the international petrochemical market (8th largest resin producer worldw ...
, an arm of Odebrecht, and dealt with the Special Chemical Industry Regime (Reiq), and tax incentives to stimulate ethanol production. The former executive said that this was not a direct exchange of favors as was, he says, the negotiation of the 50 million reals passed on to the government for the creation of Crisis Refis to solve the crisis caused by zero ("Industrialized Products Tax"; IPI), but that the then-minister knew that he was talking to someone who had given money to . The former executive said he often met Mantega and they both brought their lawsuits to meetings. According to him, the former minister had already asked the executive to "resolve issues" pending with publicist João Santana and the then-treasurer of the PT, . The advertiser always feared political campaigns because of the risk of getting into debt at the end. That's why he made advance payment on the account, to make it quiet. Former Odebrecht Institutional Relations Director stated that former minister , when he became treasurer of Dilma Rousseff's campaign in 2014, asked for two donations from five parties to support the Force of the People, at 7 million reals each. The PCdoB, PDT, PRB, PROS, and PP received the illegal donations, according to the former director of Odebrecht. Together, these parties gave three minutes and twenty seconds of television time to the presidential ticket. In return, said the former director, the contractor hoped to obtain ''quid pro quos'' from the elected government. The informant detailed meetings with the politicians in his office and cash deliveries, always made in kind by messengers to hotel rooms or flats. Marcelo Odebrecht said he met with Silva a few times to handle the money for the parties that would join the coalition in 2014. The former Dilma minister allegedly instructed Alencar to directly seek party leaders to pass on the values. He clarified that the interest of the PT was the increase of the time of electoral time in the television, being in a total of eleven minutes and twenty-four seconds, being a third of that time coming from the parties purchased.


Repercussions outside Brazil

During the many years it has been going on, the Car Wash scandal has expanded from its original roots in money laundering, to encompass wider corruption in Brazil, and outside its borders in at least ten other countries, even beyond South America.


Paradise Papers

On 5 November 2017, the Paradise Papers, a set of confidential electronic documents relating to
offshore investment Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have ser ...
, revealed that Odebrecht used at least one
offshore company The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to: * a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pro ...
as a vehicle for paying the bribes uncovered through the Operation Car Wash investigation. Marcelo Odebrecht, his father Emílio Odebrecht and his brother Maurício Odebrecht are all mentioned in the Paradise Papers.


Argentina

During the governments of
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Cristina Elisabet Fernández de Kirchner (; born 19 February 1953), often referred to by her initials CFK, is an Argentine lawyer and politician who has served as the Vice President of Argentina since 2019. She also served as the President ...
and Néstor Kirchner, Odebrecht was awarded overvalued contracts worth at least US$9.6 billion.


Mexico

In Mexico, the former director of the state-owned oil company
Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and exp ...
, a close ally of President Peña Nieto, is suspected of receiving US$10 million in bribes from Odebrecht.


Panama

Ramón Fonseca Mora, president of Panama's
Panameñista Party The Panameñista Party is a nationalist political party in Panama. It was the third largest party by number of adherents with 256,138 members (as of February 2016). Founding and early history The party is the oldest continuously operating pa ...
, was dismissed in March 2016 due to his involvement in the scandal. The Panama Papers resulted from a hack of his lawfirm's computer systems. Fonseca and his business partner Jürgen Mossack were arrested and jailed in February 2017. They were released in April 2017 after a judge ruled they had cooperated with the investigation and ordered them each to pay $500,000 in bail.


Peru

During the Peruvian presidential election in February 2016, a report by the
Brazilian Federal Police The Federal Police of Brazil ( Portuguese: ''Polícia Federal'') is a federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and one of the three national police forces. The other two are the Federal Highway Police, and the National Force. From 1944 to 1967 ...
implicated President Ollanta Humala in bribery by Odebrecht for public works contracts. President Humala denied the charge and has avoided questions from the media on this matter. In July 2017, Humala and his wife were arrested and held in pre-trial detention following investigations into his involvement in the Odebrecht scandal. Investigations revealed that Brazilian president Lula da Silva pressured Odebrecht to pay millions of dollars toward Humala's presidential campaign. In December 2017 Peru's President
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meanin ...
appeared before
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
to defend himself against
impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...
over allegations of covering up illegal payments of $782,000 from Odebrecht to Kuczynski's company Westfield Group Capital Ltd.
Keiko Fujimori Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (; ja, 藤森 恵子, Fujimori Keiko; born 25 May 1975) is a Peruvian politician. Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi. From August 1994 to November 2000, ...
, who had lost the 2016 presidential elections to Kuczynski by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes, was championing impeachment; her party had already forced out five government ministers. Fujimori herself was later implicated in the Odebrecht scandal over alleged campaign contributions and on 31 October 2018 a judge sent her to 36 months of pretrial detention. Kuczynski resigned the Presidency on 21 March 2018 and was sent to pretrial detention on 10 April 2019. On 17 April 2019,
Alan García Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (; 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the Peruvian Apri ...
, a former President of Peru who was also implicated in the scandal, died by suicide from shooting himself in the head while police attempted to arrest him. Former president
Alejandro Toledo Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique (; born 28 March 1946) is a Peruvian politician who served President of Peru, from 2001 to 2006. He gained international prominence after leading the opposition against president Alberto Fujimori, who held ...
(2001–2006) was also implicated in the bribery scandal, and was arrested in Redwood City, California in July 2019 for allegedly taking bribes in connection with a highway construction contract.


Venezuela

In late 2017, Euzenando Prazeres de Azevedo, president of Constructora Odebrecht in Venezuela, told investigators that Odebrecht had made $35 million in campaign contributions to
Nicolas Maduro Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...
's 2013 presidential campaign in return for Odebrecht projects receiving priority in Venezuela, that Americo Mata, Maduro's campaign manager, initially asked for $50 million for Maduro, settled in the end for $35 million. In May 2018, Transparency International showed that only 9 of 33 projects started by Odebrecht in Venezuela between 1999 and 2013 were completed.


Singapore

One of Singapore's prominent government linked company (Keppel Corp) is also implicated in the Petrobras' corruption scandals. Information of involvement is confirmed in the plea bargain Keppel Corporation reached with US DOJ. Keppel and US DOJ however failed to release the name of all people involved in this corruption scandal. Details is available on the US DOJ site here.


Leaked conversations

On 9 June 2019, Greenwald and other journalists from investigative journalism magazine ''
The Intercept Brasil ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'' started publishing several leaked chat messages exchanged via the
Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
app between members of the Brazilian judiciary system. Some, including then Car Wash judge and former
Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in ...
Sérgio Moro Sergio Fernando Moro (; born 1 August 1972) is a Brazilian jurist, former federal judge, college professor and politician. He was elected to be a member of the Federal Senate for Paraná in October 2022. In 2015 he gained national attention a ...
and lead prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol are accused of violating legal procedure during the investigation, trial and arrest of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva allegedly for the sake of preventing him to run for a third term in the
2018 Brazilian general election General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff round was held ...
, among other crimes. Other news agencies, such as ''
Folha de São Paulo ''Folha de S.Paulo'' (sometimes spelled ''Folha de São Paulo''), also known as simply ''Folha'' (, ''Sheet''), is a Brazilian daily newspaper founded in 1921 under the name ''Folha da Noite'' and published in São Paulo by the Folha da Manhã c ...
'' and ''
Veja Veja may refer to : Places * Veja, a town in Lazio, central Italy; now Vejano comune * Veja, a village in Stănița Commune, Neamț County, Romania * Veja River, Romania * Veja State, a former princely state in present Gujarat, western India Pe ...
'' confirmed the authenticity of the messages and worked in partnership with ''The Intercept Brasil'' to sort the rest of the material in their possession before releasing it. On 23 July,
Brazilian Federal Police The Federal Police of Brazil ( Portuguese: ''Polícia Federal'') is a federal law enforcement agency of Brazil and one of the three national police forces. The other two are the Federal Highway Police, and the National Force. From 1944 to 1967 ...
made public that they had arrested and were investigating a hacker from
Araraquara Araraquara ( or ) is a city in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 250.314 (2022 est.) in an area of . It is also known as "the abode of the sun," because of its impressive sunset and because of its hot atmosphe ...
, Walter Delgatti Neto, for breaking into the authorities' Telegram accounts. Neto confessed to the hack and to having given the
chat log A chat log is an archive of transcripts from online chat and instant messaging conversations. Many chat or IM applications allow for the client-side archiving of online chat conversations, while a subset of chat or IM clients (i.e., Google Talk and ...
s to Greenwald. Police said the attack had been perpetrated by abusing Telegram's phone number verification and exploiting vulnerabilities in voicemail technology in use in Brazil using a spoofed phone number. The Intercept neither confirmed nor denied that Neto was their source and cited provisions for freedom of the press in the 1988
Brazilian Constitution The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil) is the supreme law of Brazil. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Brazil and the feder ...
. Greenwald has faced death threats and homophobic harassment from supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro due to his reporting on the Telegram messages. A ''New York Times'' profile of Greenwald and his husband David Miranda, a left-wing congressman, said the couple have become targets of homophobia from Bolsonaro supporters as a result of the reporting. ''The Washington Post'' reported that Greenwald had been targeted with tax investigations by the Bolsonaro government as retaliation for the reporting, while AP called Greenwald's reporting the first test case for a free press in the Bolsonaro era. ''The Guardian,'' reporting on retaliation against Greenwald from the Bolsonaro government and its supporters, said the articles published by Greenwald and ''The Intercept'' "have had an explosive impact on Brazilian politics and dominated headlines for weeks," adding that the exposés "appeared to show prosecutors in the sweeping Operation Car Wash corruption inquiry colluding with Sérgio Moro, the judge who became a hero in Brazil for jailing powerful businessmen, middlemen and politicians." After Bolsonaro explicitly threatened to imprison Greenwald for this reporting, Supreme Court justice
Gilmar Mendes Gilmar Ferreira Mendes (born December 30, 1955) is a Brazilian Justice of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Brazilian Supreme Federal Court), appointed by then President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in 2002. Mendes was also the Chief Justice for the 200 ...
ruled that any investigation of Greenwald in connection with the reporting would be illegal under Brazilian constitution, calling freedom of the press a "pillar of democracy". Glenn Greenwald reported that the leaked file is bigger than the one in the Snowden case. Fernando Haddad considered the leaks to have potential to become the "greatest institutional scandal in the history of the Brazilian republic". In response to the leaks, several top jurisprudence authorities and experts in Europe and the Americas, such as
Susan Rose-Ackerman Susan Rose-Ackerman (born Susan Gould Rose on April 23, 1942 in Mineola, New York) is Henry R. Luce Professor Emeritus of Law and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale University. She is an expert in political corruption and developmen ...
(praised by Car Wash prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol as the world's top corruption expert), Bruce Ackerman, and Luigi Ferrajoli, voiced their shock at the conduct of the Brazilian authorities and described former President Lula as a political prisoner, calling for his release. In March 2020, ''the Intercept'' reported that Brazilian prosecutors had secretly collaborated with the US Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation in a manner "that may have violated international legal treaties and Brazilian law". The Brazilian Ministry of Justice had not been informed; making this collaboration illegal. They also found that money paid by Brazilian companies in the US were funnelled back into Brazil; chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol said he would use part of this sum to set up an "independent fund to fight corruption". This attempt was then deemed unconstitutional by Brazil's Supreme Court. In February 2021, ''the Wire'' reported that Mr. Dallagnol had called Lula da Silva's arrest “a gift from the CIA”, and that Leslie Backschies, the head of the US FBI’s international corruption unit, had said that her agency had “toppled Presidents in Brazil”.


Winding down

As of September 2020, there were fears that political forces were about to bring an end to Operation Car Wash, according to prosecutors in Brazil. Chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol said, "Today there is a very strong alignment of political forces against the Lava Jato operation. Much more than
ust UST or Ust may refer to: Organizations * UST (company), American digital technology company * Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union * Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad) * United States Television Manufacturing Corp. * UST Gr ...
an operation, the Brazilian effort against corruption itself is at risk." One of the reasons Jair Bolsonaro was elected president in 2018, was because of his promises to attack corruption, but since he and his family members became embroiled, he has cooled on it. Bolsonaro's attorney general Augusto Aras complained that the investigations went too far, and were biased politically, and campaigned against it, gaining support from Bolsonaro family members such as son Flavio who was caught up in it. Dallagnol claimed that the slow down and efforts to stop the investigations were because the investigations were getting close to revealing corruption at the highest levels. Other branches of government also oppose the investigations, including Congress and the Supreme Court, which have been targets, as well as political parties. Analysts see a concerted effort to back down from aggressive anti-corruption efforts in Brazil.


Dramatizations

There are two dramatizations of Operation Car Wash. One is the 2017 film '' Polícia Federal: A Lei É para Todos'' (''Federal Police: The Law Is for Everyone''), directed by Marcelo Antunez (2017), and the other is the Netflix series '' The Mechanism''. The Netflix documentary and
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominee '' The Edge of Democracy'', by Petra Costa (2019), about the political crisis between 2016 and the election of Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018, has Operation Car Wash as an important element as well.


See also

*
Brazilian Anti-Corruption Act The Brazilian Anti-Corruption Act ( pt-BR, Lei anticorrupção) officially "Law No. 12,846" and commonly known as the Clean Company Act ( pt, Lei da Empresa Limpa, label=none) is a Brazilian law enacted in 2014 targeting corrupt practices ...
*
Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th president of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Dilma Rous ...
*
Impeachment proposals against Michel Temer The impeachment proposal against Michel Temer, the former President of Brazil and former vice-president, consisted of an open procedural matter with a goal to preventing the continuation of the mandate of Michel Temer as vice president/acting pre ...
* '' Mani pulite'', Italian judicial investigation into political corruption * Odebrecht–Car Wash leniency agreement * Offshoots of Operation Car Wash * Phases of Operation Car Wash * Odebrecht Case : in Portuguese: * '' Desdobramentos da Operação Lava Jato fora do Brasil'' (Offshoots of Operation Car Wash outside Brazil)


References

Notes Citations


External links


Lava Jato
official Brazilian website for Operation Car Wash
Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil
pdf; 432 pages
Legislação brasileira traduzida para o Inglês
official English translations of the Constitution, and dozens of other laws {{DEFAULTSORT:Operation Car Wash 2014 in Brazil 2014 scandals 2015 in Brazil 2015 scandals 2016 in Brazil 2016 scandals 2017 in Brazil 2017 scandals Anti-corruption measures Corruption in Brazil Government of Michel Temer Odebrecht Petrobras Political history of Brazil Political scandals in Brazil