Electoral Court Convicts Former Governor of Minas Gerais

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The former governor of Minas Gerais, Fernando Pimentel, has been sentenced by a first instance Electoral Court to ten years and six months in prison for influence peddling and money laundering. The convicted politician may remain free while appealing.

The sentence handed down by judge Luzia Divina de Paula Peixôto, of the 32nd Electoral Zone of Belo Horizonte, was published in this Thursday’s edition, November 21st, of the Journal of the Regional Electoral Court of Minas Gerais (TRE-MG).

According to the sentence, the crimes were committed when Pimentel was Minister of Development under Dilma Rousseff, between 2011 and 2014, before he took over the government of Minas Gerais, a state he ruled between 2015 and 2018. He attempted reelection last year but was defeated.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), Pimentel used his position in the federal administration to negotiate irregular campaign donations with the owner of the company JHSF Incorporações.

In exchange for declared and undeclared donations (slush funds) to his campaign for governor in 2014, the politician influenced, together with the Secretariat of Civil Aviation, the granting of an airport concession in the metropolitan region of São Paulo to the company.

“Due to the probative context, the influence that Fernando Pimentel had exercised to approve the project has been confirmed,” argued the judge in the sentence.

The party allegedly in charge of mediating the negotiations was businessman Benedito Rodrigues de Oliveira, known as Bené. He worked in Pimentel’s campaign for governor of Minas Gerais and was also sentenced to eight years in prison for influence peddling and money laundering.

Based on testimony from Bené, who cooperated with the investigations, and other evidence, the MPF said that R$5 million (US$1.3 million) were agreed as a bribe to be paid by businessman José Auriemo Neto through official donations to Pimentel’s campaign and the PT party executive board.

According to the indictment, an undeclared portion of the donation had  been transferred directly in two remittances of R$250,000 in cash. Part of the amount was used to pay off campaign debts to the Vox Populli research institute.

Marcos Coimbra and Marcos Hiram Novaes, both linked to Vox Populli, were also convicted, with sentences two years, nine months and 18 days of imprisonment. These sentences, however, were converted into providing community services and payment of a fine.

The case stemmed from ‘Operação Acrônimo’ (Operation Acronym), in which the Federal Police (PF) investigated the employment of slush funds in the 2014 campaign in Minas Gerais. The criminal action, one of the four resulting from the operation, was handled in the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) but was remanded to the Electoral courts of MG earlier this year after Pimentel resigned as governor and lost his special forum privileges.

When questioned, attorney Eugênio Pacelli, who represents the former governor, sent a note stating that “this conviction exceeded any reasonable limit.”

“I’ve never seen anything so unreasonable and so contrary to the evidence in the records. Cooperating witnesses changing their stories, facts clearly made up with the police and in court, and unveiled in the hearing. And accepted as truth”, says the defense counsel.

Despite acknowledging the judge’s “integrity and impartiality,” he said that the “sentence, surprisingly weak, will be fully reviewed on appeal”.

Located in the Southeastern Region of Brazil, Minas Gerais ranks as Brazil’s second-most populous state, third in gross domestic product (GDP), and fourth-largest in area.

Source: Agência Brasil