Justice Dias Toffoli of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) has ordered the opening of an inquiry against Senator and former judge Sergio Moro (Union Brazil-PR), based on a request from the Attorney General's Office (PGR), on suspicion of fraud in a plea deal prior to the Operation Car Wash.
The case involves the businessman from Curitiba and former state deputy Antônio Celso Garcia, known as Tony Garcia, who claims to have been forced to secretly record people at the request of prosecutors and Moro after entering into a collaboration agreement in 2004.
The opening of the investigation was reported by GloboNews and confirmed by Folha. The process is under seal, and Toffoli's decision is from December 19, one day before the Judiciary recess. Investigators aim to investigate suspicions of crimes such as procedural fraud, criminal organization, and extortion (a crime against public administration).
In his decision, Toffoli authorized the opening of the inquiry, ordered the inclusion of documents presented by Tony Garcia in the records, and issued requests for documents from the Federal Court in Curitiba and the TRF-4 (Federal Regional Court of the 4th Region). He also ordered "the maintenance of the restrictive regime of publicity of the records to prevent prejudice to the requested diligences."
The alleged irregularities, according to Garcia, were reported to Federal Judge Gabriela Hardt in 2021. In November 2022, the judge terminated the old plea deal, complying with a request from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) in 2018. According to him, the report made in 2021 had its content sent to the STF only in April of this year, by decision of Judge Eduardo Appio, who worked in the Lava Jato court last year.