OAS Partner Plea Bargain Hampered After He Acquits Ex-President Lula

06/01/2016 - 11h00

Negotiations over the plea bargain deal of Leo Pinheiro, former president and member of the OAS sentenced to 16 years in prison, were hampered because of the way the contractor recounted two episodes involving former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The halt occurs at the time OAS and Odebrecht dispute a race to take the plea bargain deal.

According to Pinheiro, the work done by OAS on the triplex apartment in Guarujá (SP) and the rural property in Atibaia (SP) was made by the company as a way to please Lula, and not as counterparties to any benefit the group has received.

The version is not considered very credible by prosecutors. In their view, Pinheiro seeks to preserve Lula with his narrative.

Pinheiro said that Lula had no role in the renovation of the apartment and in the works on the rural property, as Folha has learnt.

The renovation work on the rural property, according to him, was requested in 2010, the last year of Lula's term, by Paulo Okamotto, the president of Lula Institute. Okamotto confirmed to the Federal Police that he was the one who asked for the works on the rural property.

The renovation of the triplex in Guarujá, according to Pinheiro's version, was an initiative of the OAS to please the former president.

The company spent about R$ 1 million (US$ 276,831) in the renovation of the apartment, but Lula's family was not interested in the property, he told his lawyers negotiating the plea bargain deal, the same version presented by Lula.

OAS and Lula Institute did not want to comment.

Translated by MARINA DELLA VALLE

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