Lava Jato Task Force in São Paulo Charges Lula and Brother with Corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Lava Jato task force in São Paulo, on September 9th, charged former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his brother, Frei Chico, with long-term passive corruption.

Emilio and Marcelo Odebrecht, owners of the Odebrecht contractor, and Alexandrino de Salles Ramos Alencar, former director of the company, were indicted for long-term active corruption.

According to the charge sheet, Lula’s brother allegedly received more than R$1.13 million (US$282,500) between 2003 and 2015 through monthly payments ranging from R$3,000 to R$5,000 in exchange for various benefits obtained by Odebrecht from the federal government.

According to a note from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the company was involved in the petrochemical sector and had been having problems with unions.

The MPF maintains that, since the 1990s, company CEO Emilio Odebrecht had tried to get closer to Frei Chico, a trade unionist in the sector, to mediate discussions with workers. Alexandrino Alencar represented the company at the meetings.

According to the MPF, in 2002, with the election of Lula, Odebrecht decided to terminate the consultancy agreement provided by Frei Chico, but it also decided to maintain an “allowance” for the elected president’s brother, “with a view to upholding a favorable relationship for the interests of the company”.

The payments allegedly started in January 2003 and ceased only in mid-2015, with the arrest of Alexandrino by Lava Jato.

The MPF points out that the “allowance” was paid covertly through Odebrecht’s “Structured Operations Sector”, which was in charge of processing the company’s bribe payments.

These hidden payments were initially authorized by Emílio and were maintained by his Marcelo, even after the end of Lula’s mandate in 2010.

The crimes of passive corruption and active corruption are punishable by two to 12 years in prison and a fine. If carried out over a long term, the penalties can be increased from one-sixth to two thirds. According to the PGR note, if convicted, Lula and Frei Chico may be sentenced anywhere from two years and four months to 20 years imprisonment.

Odebrecht stated in a note: “Odebrecht has cooperated with the authorities in a permanent and effective manner, seeking full clarification of past events, in an ethical, honest and transparent manner”.

Cristiano Zanin Martins, Lula’s lawyer, also stated in a note that the formal charge “duplicates the same and unreasonable accusations” already presented in other criminal proceedings against the former president.

“Lula never offered the Odebrecht Group any ‘package of undue advantages’, so much so that the complaint does not describe, much less prove, any illegal act practiced by the former president”.

Julio Cesar Fernandes Neves, a lawyer involved in Frei Chico’s defense, told TV Brasil that “the denunciation is a slander on an innocent person, with the aim of attacking President Lula”.

The lawyer says that Frei Chico was providing services to Odebrecht since the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995 to 2003), which “proves that there was no influence peddling”.

He further said that “the whistleblower (Alexandrino) is slandering his client with the clear goal of taking advantage of any future convictions”.

Former President Lula has been serving a sentence of eight years, ten months and twenty days in the Federal Police headquarters in Paraná since April last year for corruption and money laundering in the Guarujá (SP) triplex case.