Federal Police Claim Bribes Passed Hands During Investigations into Sao Paulo Metro Disaster

10/19/2016 - 12h38

New evidence suggests that officials in Sao Paulo's judiciary system were bribed to favour contractors in the investigation into the metro disaster of 2007 that left seven dead.

This investigation, launched by the Federal Police, is the latest stage of Operation Car Wash which attempts to uncover the structural corruption in the workings of construction company Odebrecht.

Odebrecht was the leader of the Via Amarela consortium, the group responsible the construction of Sao Paulo's Line 4 - Yellow Line. 

The court found the 14 people accused of causing the accident not guilty.

The case dealt mainly with small and medium-scale perpetrators of corruption, rather than focusing on the big bosses and alleged ring leaders. In the final verdict, the judge of the 1st Criminal Division of Sao Paulo's law court, Aparecida Angélica Correia, said that the prosecution could not prove that Via Amarela and the metro line technicians would have been able to prevent the crater which opened up on the track, causing casualties and seven deaths.

Many of those suspected of bribing members of the Public Ministry in order to cover up the accident were arrested because of documents seized in Operation Sand Castles, in 2009.

The accusations levelled against them were further supported by papers seized on September 26 by the Federal Police in Operation Car Wash. The material, however, does not make explicit reference to any individual by name.

The case was analysed by different prosecutors, both from civil and criminal courts.

The seized papers from Operation Sand Castles the seized papers implicated a member of the Sao Paulo Public Ministry in receiving bribes of more than R$3 million (USD 940,000).

At the time of this operation, the Federal Police were investigating crimes connected with the contractor Camarga Corrêa, including bribes to the authorities for public contracts.

Last month, one of the messages intercepted by the police during the operation, destined for Odebrecht management, explained the intricacies surrounding a payment to the prosecution in 2007.

The email was sent on June 2 of that year by the director of Odebrecht's work on the yellow line, Marcio Pellegrini, an executive of the group.
The construction of Line 4 was carried out by a consortium made up of five contractors, which included, aside from Odebrecht, Camargo Corrêa, OAS, Queiroz Galvão and Andrade Gutierrez.

The Federal Police's report said that "seemingly, it was hoped that the payment in question would help the contractors get away with the crime."

	Luiz Carlos Muraukas - 12.jan.2007/Folhapress
	On January 12, 2007, during the construction of Pinheiros station, a large part of the site's access tunnel collapsed, opening an 80 m diameter crater, killing seven people

Translated by GILLIAN SOPHIE HARRIS

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