Operation Exchange, the largest Lava Jato Operation in terms of the number of people taken into custody, will soon complete one year, but it has yet to apprehend many of its fugitive defendants, including the main target - black market money dealer Dario Messer.
On April 3 2018, the Federal Police launched Operation Exchange, the result of an investigation in Rio de Janeiro that targeted financial networks responsible for illegally moving billion dollar amounts. The operation mandated preventive detention for 49 people, including Dario Messer, known as the “dollar man of the dollar men,” who also has Paraguayan citizenship.
At the time it was expected that this new stage of the investigation would unveil other sources of money laundering beyond the radar of the Curitiba task force. But there has been little progress due to judicial proceedings and the inability to locate the main targets of the investigation. Messer and at least five other people have not been found despite international cooperation from Paraguay.
Everyone who was taken into custody last year is now out of jail. At least ten releases were determined by Supreme Court Minister Gilmar Mendes, of and four others by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice).
In some cases, the initiative came from Judge Marcelo Bretas himself, in the first instance. Two of the suspects have already died.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon