Judge Moro Demands Lula to Provide Original Rent Receipts for São Bernardo Apartment

10/10/2017 - 10h36

Judge Sergio Moro, who is overseeing Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash), wants former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to "speedily" clarify whether or not he holds the original rent receipts of the apartment adjacent to his residence in São Bernardo do Campo (in the state of São Paulo).

If so, Moro is demanding the former president to hand them over.

Last week, the Prosecutor General's Office expressed concerns regarding the authenticity of the 26 receipts that the former president's attorneys handed over. The office requested an inspection of the documents.

The judge also ordered Lula's defense to clarify if it has any additional evidence it would like to submit.

The indictment that was brought forward by the Prosecutor's Office claims that Lula did not pay rent for the property which was acquired by businessman Glaucos da Costamarques in 2010.

According to prosecutors, Costamarques did not participate in the transaction, which was really made using bribe money offered by construction firm Odebrecht. The bribe money was obtained by the construction firm through the Petrobras graft scheme.

Costamarques' attorneys filed a petition stating that all of the rent receipts were signed on a single day in December of 2015, while the businessman was hospitalized in the Sírio-Libanês hospital in São Paulo.

After Roberto Teixeira, a good friend and lawyer of the former president, payed the businessman a visit, the accountant João Leite is said to have stopped by to pick up the documents with Costamarques' signatures.

Moro requested that the hospital present the patient's visitor log book during the period in question, highlighting any visits made by Teixeira and Leite.

Translated by THOMAS MATHEWSON

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	Mateus Bonomi/Folhapress
	Former Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva