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Former governor Sérgio Cabral had two of his sentences modified by the Federal Regional Court of Region II (TRF-2). The sentence was carried out on Wednesday (7), by the First Specialized Panel, and involved Operations Efficiency 2 and Muscat, both Lava Jato developments.
In the first case, the appellants increased the penalty imposed by the first instance from 15 years in prison to 15 years and eight months, and in the second, they reduced the penalty from 13 years to 10 years and 10 months in prison.
The sentences of the other defendants were also modified, among them that of the former first lady Adriana Ancelmo, those of the financial operators Carlos Miranda and Luiz Carlos Bezerra, and those of the money changers Marcelo and Renato Chebar. The sentences refer to money laundering practices and criminal association.
The decisions were issued in appeals filed by the accused and by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), which requested an increase in the sentence. The defendants’ defenses alleged that they had been convicted more than once for the same crime, in different trials derived from Operation Calicute, a subsidiary of Lava Jato, which attacked the corruption scheme in the Fluminense government, under the direction of Cabral.
The rapporteur, Judge Abel Gomes, refuted the defense argument, explaining that the proven facts in each case are not repeated. The magistrate clarified that the money laundering was carried out through various means, such as fictitious service contracts, purchase of cars, real estate, jewelry and works of art, payments of personal expenses and transfers in kind. In each case, he pointed out, the illicit practices found are different.
On the merits, among other reasons, the judge pointed out that the defenses could not refute the evidence that supported the sentences and recalled that, in addition to the information provided through the award-winning collaboration, the investigation of the process gathered various documents, obtained, for example, with telephone and telematic interceptions and violations of banking and fiscal secrecy.
Operation Efficiency 2 investigated the illicit cover-up of almost R $ 40 million. Muscat, for its part, revealed the laundering of R $ 10 million, diverted in contracts signed by the state government.
