Brazil’s Supreme Court opened a case against former judge Lava Jato on suspicion of fraud and blackmail

Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court (STF) opened a case against a former judge of Operation Lava Jato, now Senator Sérgio Moro, accused of evidence fraud, blackmail, coercion and criminal organization, since the case also involves prosecutors from within the ministry. the public involved in this anti-corruption operation at the time.

The case was opened by order of STF Judge Diaz Toffoli at the request of the Federal Police and the new Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet.

An investigation by the Federal Police revealed serious crimes attributed to Moro and Lava Hato prosecutors in a cooperation agreement with the justice system concluded in the early 2000s between the then influential judge and Paraná state legislator Toni García, who was a prominent figure at the time in regional politics. This agreement, considered one of the seeds of what would become the Lava Hato anti-corruption operation that brought Sergio Moro international fame, was kept completely secret for more than two decades. The criminal court in the city of Curitiba, capital of the state of Parana, which the former judge commanded for many years with an iron fist, and was only recently discovered and sent to the PGR and the Federal Supreme Court by another judge.

Thanks to this award-winning cooperation agreement, according to the Federal Police and the Attorney General’s Office, Sergio Moro turned Tony Garcia into a kind of private spy, entrusting him with the illegal mission of secretly recording judges, judges and other government officials above his own. The idea, investigators allege, was to obtain records that would compromise those authorities, something Moreau and prosecutors could not do under any circumstances, and then use the information obtained for blackmail for their own benefit or for investigations carried out by the then judge.

This Monday, Sérgio Moro, who has already been recognized by the Federal Supreme Court as biased and suspect in the trials of Operation Lava Jato, all of which were annulled by that body, including those that sent Lula da Silva to prison for 580 days, said, that he did not commit any illegal acts in the agreement to cooperate with justice mentioned in the lawsuit. And he added that he was also not aware of the launch of a new STF action or of the Federal Police investigation against him.