RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The report by the Federal Police (PF) that charged former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with collecting kickbacks masked as donations to the Lula Institute, suggests that the company ‘Lils Lectures and Events’, owned by the leftist, received R$450,132.41 from Infoglobo Communication and Shareholdings in October 2013.
According to the report, the transfer from the Globo Group company corresponds to only 1.6 percent of the more than R$28 million in bank transfers to the former president’s company between July 2011 and January 2016.
“As said, this report is based on news of the receipt of amounts from the companies investigated within the scope of the Lava Jato Operation (Odebrecht, Camargo Corrêa, UTC, Queiroz Galvão, Andrade Gutierrez and OAS) by the company Lils Lectures, Events and Publications Ltda. in amounts exceeding R$9 million,” says the PF.
The document also shows that the lectures commissioned by Odebrecht allow concluding that this contractor “provided the largest portion of Lula’s company’s source of income”. According to the report, Odebrecht was behind the direct transfer of approximately ten percent of the former president’s company resources.
The amounts provided by the construction company between 2011 and 2014 to Lils ranged between R$350,000 and R$449,000 for lectures conducted by the ex-president in Brazil and abroad. According to the Federal Government, the money received by Lula from Odebrecht “was a kickback disguised as donations”.
In addition to the ex-president, former Finance Minister and Presidential Chief of Staff Antônio Palocci, the president of the Lula Institute, Paulo Okamotto, and former Odebrecht president, Marcelo Odebrecht, were also charged.
The other side
In a note, attorney Cristiano Zanin Martins, ex-president Lula’s defense counsel, said: “The charge is part of the Lawfare promoted by the Curitiba’s Lava Jato against ex-president Lula and makes no sense: the donations to the Lula Institute were formal, their source identified and without any compensation”.
“At the time of the donations, Lula was not even a public official and the beneficiary was the Lula Institute, an institution that aims to preserve items that are part of Brazil’s cultural heritage and not to be confused with the former president’s physical person”.
Infoglobo says it is involved in initiatives that contribute to the development and promotion of Rio de Janeiro and points out that in 2013 it “supported Fecomércio-RJ in holding a seminar on the Rio State Trade Map. “In addition to publicizing the event in its newspapers, Infoglobo paid the costs of lecturers, including ex-president Lula,” says the Globo Group company.
Odebrecht states that it is “committed to ethical, honest and transparent performance” and guarantees that it “has constantly and effectively cooperated with the authorities in search of full clarification of past facts”.