Odebrecht Spreadsheets Archived Without Being Investigated

07/31/2018 - 11h04

A spreadsheet handed over by plea-bargainers from the Odebrecht construction company with names and numbers regarding "amounts to be passed along" involving 22 politicians and officials, including two justices from higher courts, hasn't been investigated by the Federal Prosecutor General's Office (PGR).

The document ended up being archived by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in the raft of documentation regarding an investigation looking into alleged payments made to Federal Congressman Bruno Araújo (PSDB-PE Party).

	Zanone Fraissa - 22.fev.2016t/Folhapress
	A federal police agent is pictured in front of the headquarters of Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht ( 02.22.2016)

The spreadsheet was submitted by plea-bargainer João Antônio Pacífico Ferreira in December of 2016 as part of a plea-bargain agreement subsequently homologated by the STF in 2017.

Pacífico, 64, was the Supervising Director of Odebrecht in the North and Northeast of Brazil. He was responsible for the company's relationships with politicians in both regions of the country, and especially in the State of Pernambuco.

The spreadsheet was entitled "Final JP", a list of politicians and officials in Pernambuco, such as Bruno Araújo, whom the PGR had opened up the investigation against.

In June, the Federal Prosecutor General, Raquel Dodge and the Federal Police had requested 60 more days to conclude the investigation, but STF Justice Dias Toffoli ordered the case archived. He argued that the investigation had been hanging on "for a significant time period, with repeated extensions granted".

The PGR informed this reporter that the decision to not investigate the other names on the list had been made by the prior management before Dodge's mandate which began in September 2017.

According to the PGR, if there are to be no investigations related to other names cited in the spreadsheet beyond Araújo's, it is because the analysis carried out in 2016 didn't come up with enough basic evidence to justify the opening of any other investigations.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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