São Paulo Court Acquits Haddad of Unjust Enrichment Charges

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Judge Thiago Baldani Gomes De Filippo, of the 8th Circuit Court of the Public Finance, dismissed a lawsuit brought by the São Paulo Prosecutor’s Office accusing former Mayor Fernando Haddad of unjust enrichment.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff was aware of slush fund payments by construction company UTC, of R$2.6 million (US$650,000) from the 2012 campaign.

The charges were based on statements by Ricardo Pessoa, the former president of UTC, and a former director of the company called Walmir Pinheiro.

In a plea bargaining agreement with Lava Jato, both collaborators said they paid the leftist’s campaign debt to two printing companies between May and June 2013, through money dealer Alberto Youssef and at the request of former Workers Party (PT) treasurer João Vaccari Neto.

In the decision, the magistrate ruled that the plea bargain signed by Pessoa and Pinheiro could not be used in cases other than Lava Jato, as described in the accreditation of the agreements.

The Prosecutor’s Office tried to import foreign legal theories to give substance to accusations of illicit enrichment.

According to prosecutor Wilson Tafner, the theory of knowledge of the fact would allow the leftists to be convicted since he would be the main beneficiary of the alleged scheme. In the same piece, the Prosecutor’s Office used the theory of willful blindness, according to which Haddad would have decided to do nothing about it, despite knowing the risks.

“The theory of willful blindness is unnecessary, as it is equivalent to contingent intent, or inadequate,” wrote the judge in the ruling. He used the same term (inadequate) to disqualify the other theory.

Source: Carta Capital