Lava Jato Reacts to Criticism by PGR Augusto Aras: “Generic and Unfounded Attacks”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After sharp criticism of Operation Lava Jato by Federal Prosecutor General (PGR) Augusto Aras, members of the task force in Paraná reacted with a note of repudiation to what they referred to as ‘generic attacks’, ‘unfounded statements’ and ‘inferences’.

The note released on Wednesday, July 29th, rebuts points raised by the head of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF). On a live broadcast, Aras criticized the lack of transparency in the database retained by Lava Jato and said it is necessary to correct abuses and overcome the so-called ‘lavajatism’.

“Generic and unfounded attacks on the activities of prosecutors and attempts to interfere in their independent work, developed in coordination in different courts and institutions must be refuted,” reads the text signed by the Paraná Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

Federal prosecutors and the PGR clashed after Aras ordered a search for all data held in Lava Jato task force offices in Paraná, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. On a live broadcast on Tuesday, July 28th, Augusto Aras said the request is the result of a search for unity and transparency at the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The Attorney General also raised suspicions regarding the volume of data kept by the task force and the criteria used to collect it.

In a reaction, Lava Jato says that the length of the database reflects the ‘breadth’ of the work conducted in the operation, ‘always in strict compliance with legal formalities’.

The note also denies the existence of hidden documents the finding of which, according to Aras, led the MPF to change the access rules to cases available in the institution’s internal electronic system.

“The inference that there are “boxes with secrets” in the prosecutor’s work is untrue, as is the allegation that there are thousands of hidden documents. “There are no secret or uncontested documents in the task force. The documents are stored in the Federal Courts or Federal Prosecutor’s Office electronic systems and can be accessed in ordinary and extraordinary corrections,” the note says.

In a similar move, the Office of the Public Prosecutorl in São Paulo also released a note to deny irregularities in the distribution of cases to members of the Prosecutor’s Office in the state. Aras even denounced alleged instances of case choosing by the São Paulo task force based on ‘ideological judgment calls’.

“The distribution of cases is conducted under the strict terms of PGR ordinance no. 23/2020. It follows the exact same criteria used for any case that comes before the São Paulo Prosecutor’s Office: verification of related cases, analysis of connection, contingence, prevention, in compliance with the unit’s internal regulations, the terms of the Prosecutor General’s Ordinance and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” reads the statement.

THE FULL TEXT OF THE STATEMENTS ARE BELOW

Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Paraná:

“The federal prosecutors members of the task force formed by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to serve in the Lava Jato operation, repudiate the unfounded statements issued over a live broadcast on July 28th, 2020, with the involvement of the Prosecutor General and attorneys who support the defense of influential politicians and entrepreneurs investigated or convicted in operation Lava Jato.

1. The generic and unfounded attacks on the activities of public prosecutors and the attempts to interfere in their independent work, developed in coordination in different courts and institutions, must be refuted. The functional independence of the Prosecutor’s Office members transcends individual cases and is a constitutional guarantee of Brazilian society that the service rendered will be guided by public interest, free from interference from diverse interests, however influential they may be.

2. The inference that there are “boxes with secrets” in the work of prosecutors is untrue, as is the allegation that there are thousands of hidden documents. There are no secret or uncontested documents in the task force. The documents are stored in the Federal Courts or Federal Prosecutor’s Office electronic systems and can be accessed in ordinary and extraordinary corrections. Investigations and proceedings are also evaluated by the Courts and the Judiciary, by the defendant’s attorneys, and by society.

3. The scope of the database only reflects the extent of the work conducted to date in Operation Lava Jato and the need for a compatible structure. Throughout more than seventy ostensible stages and six years of investigation, a large amount of data – such as hard drives, smartphones, and flash drives – were collected, always in strict compliance with the legal formalities, linked to duly established specific procedures. For the sake of clarity, sometimes just a single personal computer holds over 1 terabyte of data.

4. The assumption that 38,000 people were chosen by the task force to be investigated is untrue, since this is the number of individuals and companies mentioned in Financial Intelligence Reports forwarded by the Financial Activities Control Board (COAF) to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, based on the routine exercise of its supervision of suspected money laundering activities.

5. Investigations of serious crimes involving politicians and prominent entrepreneurs clearly displease an influential part of our society, which employs all means to discredit the work successfully accomplished so far. In this context, it is essential that the institutions ensure the operational independence of the Prosecutors’ Office members, as guaranteed by the 1988 Constitution.”

Federal Prosecutor’s Office in São Paulo:

“The task force of Operation Lava Jato (FTLJ-SP) in the São Paulo Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), replying to your statements. The Federal Prosecutor General, on a live broadcast yesterday, July 28th, in which he claimed a lack of clarity in the distribution of cases, hereby publicly discloses the full information provided on July 27th to the National Council of Public Prosecutors (CNMP) on the matter, in a request for action brought by the Federal Prosecutor General.

The distribution of cases is conducted under the strict terms of PGR Ordinance No. 23/2020. It follows the exact same criteria adopted for any action that comes before the São Paulo Office of the Prosecutor: verification of related cases, analysis of connection, contingence, prevention, in compliance with the unit’s internal regulations, the terms of the Prosecutor-General’s Ordinance and the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

In the first half of 2019, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office conducted an ordinary corrective review of all judicial and extrajudicial proceedings of the FTLJ-SP. In January 2020, it made an extraordinary correction in the 23 task forces in the MPF, including the FTLJ-SP, which provided the MPF’S Inspector General with all of the requested data. In both corrections, no irregularities were detected.”

Source: Estadão Conteúdo