Brazilian Attorney General Seeks Arrest Warrants of Senate President, Ruling Party Leader and a Former President

06/07/2016 - 13h20

Under suspicion that top PMDB party leadership acted to try to interfere with the so called Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation, for the first time in Brazil the President of the Senate and a former President have had warrants requested for their arrests.

The Federal Attorney General, Rodrigo Janot, has sent the STF (Federal Supreme Court) a solicitation for arrest warrants of the President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (PMDB-AL), of Senator Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), former Brazilian President José Sarney (PMDB-AP) and suspended Congressman Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ).

It's the first time that the PGR (Office of the Attorney General) has sought the arrest of the President of Congress and a former Brazilian President.

The request will be analyzed by Minister Teori Zavascki, who is conducting the Lava Jato process at the Supreme Court.

Regarding Calheiros, Sarney and Jucá, the rationale for the arrest request stems from recordings made by Sérgio Machado, the former President of Transpetro, involving the PMDB leaders. The conversations suggest a plot to interfere with the investigations of corruption schemes at Petrobras.

The request for the warrants was first revealed on Tuesday, the 7th, by the newspaper "O Globo" and was confirmed by Folha. Regarding Sarney, the request is for home detention, with use of an electronic-tracking device, due to his age - 86.

Janot also asked the STF for the removal of Calheiros from the Presidency of the Senate.

In a conversation recorded by Machado, Jucá actually referred to an agreement to impede the Lava Jato. Twelve days after assuming his position at the Planning Ministry, Folha published the recording, and Juca left the position and returned to the Senate.

In his plea bargain, the former President of Transpetro testified that he had paid at least R$ 70 million (US$ 19.4 million), which was diverted from the Petrobras subsidiary to PMDB leaders in the Senate.

The majority of the bribes had been delivered to the President of the Senate, some R$ 30 million (US$ 8.5 million). Calheiros is considered to be Machado's political mentor and chiefly responsible for maintaining him in his position which he held for more than 10 years.

The former company President pointed out to investigators that Jucá and Sarney received R$ 20 million (US$ 5.7 million) each from the scheme. Details are unknown regarding how Machado made the transfers, which were diverted from the company responsible for fuel transportation in Brazil.

Machado's plea bargain was approved by the STF (Federal Supreme Court) and the Federal Attorney General is evaluating the testimony in its investigations. The testimony is revealing that the money path leads to the PMDB leadership.

Among the things suspected is that PMDB leaders had received part of the bribes in the form of campaign donations, in order to facilitate the winning bid of a consortium of companies in the tender for overhauling Transpetro's fleet.

CUNHA

The request for Cunha's arrest warrant was revealed by TV Globo this morning.

According to investigation by Folha, the Attorney General's Office has come to the conclusion that his suspension from his mandate as the President of the Congress hasn't had any effect, evidenced by his continuing attempts to interfere in the investigations against him by the Courts and the Congressional Ethics Council, which is discussing his permanent removal from office.

And there are even reports that a member of the Prosecutor's Office is being threatened by Cunha's group.

Cunha was suspended from his mandate on the 5th of May, in a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court. He was already a defendant in the Lava Jato case for crimes of corruption and money laundering, in addition to being suspected of having a secret bank account in Switzerland, and another four proceedings investigating the use of his position to benefit allies and suspicion of diverting funds from the Porto Maravilha project.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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