RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Conversations obtained through the website The Intercept Brasil and published on Thursday, August 29th, indicate that the coordinator of Operation Car Wash, Deltan Dallagnol, lied to the public when denying that public officials passed information about investigations to the press.
In chats on Telegram, prosecutors admit to “leaks,” and Dallagnol appears to be one step ahead of the media.
According to the messages shown by Intercept, Dallagnol participated in groups in which that kind of leak was discussed, planned, and executed.
On June 21st, 2015, the Car Wash prosecutor Orlando Martello sent, according to the message obtained on Telegram, the following question to his colleague Carlos Fernando Santos Lima, in the FT Federal Public Prosecutor Curitiba 2 group, which brings members of the task force together: “What was the strategy to reveal the next steps at Eletrobrás, etc.?”
Santos Lima said he didn’t know what Martello was talking about, but he stated: “My leaks always aim to make them [the press] think that the investigations are inevitable and to encourage collaboration.”
This conversation would have taken place two days after the 14th phase of the Car Wash, which pointed to contractors Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez. The prosecutors discussed strategies to reach a whistleblower agreement with Bernardo Freiburghaus, who is named as Odebrecht’s kickback operator.
That same day, Dallagnol and Martello said in the group that they leaked information about how the USA would help with Freiburghaus’ investigation.
According to the conversations, they informed reporters from the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, anticipating the move, to put pressure on the investigator. Dallagnol would have been the one responsible.
“Odebrecht’s operator was Bernardo, who is in Switzerland. The USA will act on our request because the transactions went through the USA. We have already made a cooperation request to the USA, in terms of the deposits received by the PRC. That is new. Are you interested in publishing that today or tomorrow, keeping my name out of it? You can say “a source in the federal Public Prosecutor”. In the press, Igor said that there is a red flag to arrest him, and there really is. He can be arrested anywhere in the world. “Now that the USA is in action, which is new, we’re going to see if we can do what we did in the Fifa case with Bernardo, which inspired us,” says Dallagnol, in the message obtained by Intercept.
The reporter, whose identity was not revealed, responds. “Sensational putz! !!!!
I’m publishing today!!!!!!!”