Something’s Rotten in Brazil’s Corruption Fight
Recent judicial rulings look like an attempt to rewrite the history of the Lava Jato investigation, threatening the country’s anti-corruption credibility.
For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law.
Photographer: Sergio Lima/AFP via Getty Images
A decade after its emergence, the historic Lava Jato corruption investigation that shook Brazil continues to make headlines — this time because new court rulings look like an attempt to rewrite the history of the controversial case, undermining the nation’s anti-corruption position. Polls show Brazilians increasingly worried about corruption, a warning that the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should take more seriously given his party’s past high-profile scandals.
First, the facts: Brazil Supreme Court Justice José Antonio Dias Toffoli this week ordered an investigation into global corruption watchdog Transparency International days after the organization criticized the magistrate’s decisions in cases derived from Lava Jato. In September, the judge had annulled all the evidence used to support the leniency deal that Odebrecht, the construction conglomerate at the center of the case, signed with prosecutors in 2016. Dias Toffoli last week also suspended payments from the 8.5-billion-real ($1.7 billion) fine imposed on Odebrecht (now known as Novonor SA) after doing the same with a 10.3-billion-real penalty in a separate agreement involving the holding company of the Batista brothers, the tycoons who control beef giant JBS.
The decisions are a sign that Lava Jato’s big lessons risk being soon forgotten.