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Minister Gilmar Mendes, of the Supreme Federal Court, suspended this Saturday (3/10) the launch to the law, commanded by Judge Marcelo Bretas, of the 7th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro.
Fernando Frazão / Agência Brasil
At the beginning of September, Bretas ordered that 75 search and seizure warrants be carried out at the addresses of companies, offices and residences of lawyers.
Mendes’ decision was made in a complaint from the Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association. In it, the entity requests the nullity of all the proceedings authorized by Bretas, responsible for the “lava jet” in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to suspending the action, the STF minister prevented the Rio de Janeiro judge from making a new decision in the case.
The lawyers began to be investigated after the award of Orlando Diniz, former president of Fecomércio do Rio. The businessman was arrested twice and since 2018 has been trying to negotiate an award agreement with the Public Ministry.
In the complaint accepted by Bretas, the MPF lists 77 addresses of offices, companies and law firms. Prosecutors tried to justify the attack against legal professionals by saying that the payments made by Fecomércio to the offices coincided with “purchases of cars and luxury properties in the country.” The events narrated by the MPF would have occurred between 2012 and 2018.
The lawyers for the arrest warrants were lawyers Cristiano Zanin and Roberto Teixeira, defenders of former President Lula, and Frederick Wassef, former lawyer for President Bolsonaro. The operation also targeted the signatures of former STJ minister, César Asfor Rocha and his son Caio Rocha; the attorneys Eduardo Martins, son of Humberto Martins, and Tiago Cedraz, son of Aroldo Cedraz, from TCU.
In the complaint, the OAB affirms that there was usurpation of jurisdiction by Bretas, since Minister Napoleão Maia is indirectly mentioned in the complaint that originated the investigation. The OAB also says that since Fecomércio is a private state entity, any investigation is the responsibility of the state attorney. Finally, according to the complaint, the search and seizure operations violated the prerogatives of the lawyers.
Mendes accepted the arguments presented by the OAB, ordering that all due diligence be suspended until the judgment on the merits by the STF.
Clandestine investigation
This Friday (10/2), Mendes had already issued a court order giving Minister Napoleão Maia access to Diniz’s complaint. Napoleon made the request after being informed that the prosecutors of the Republic of Rio de Janeiro were investigating him clandestinely. The process is confidential, but the precautionary measure is registered in the procedural follow-up of the STF dated yesterday (2/10), as revealed spells.
Maia’s banking and fiscal secrets were allegedly broken without judicial authorization, during the MPF’s assault on law firms. As the ministers of the higher courts have a special forum, any investigation carried out by the MPF in Rio de Janeiro was carried out illegally.
Maia questioned the operation of the MPF on August 7, a month before Judge Marcelo Bretas, of the 7th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro, authorized, based on Diniz’s complaint, the execution of court orders against lawyers.
Abuse upon abuse
The award from the former president of Fecomercio Orlando Diniz served to legitimize the largest accusation against the legal profession ever made in Brazil. On the occasion, Marcelo Bretas accepted a complaint from the MPF and ordered the execution of 75 search warrants and seizures at the homes of companies, offices and residences of lawyers.
In wide coverage, the spells It has been pointing out flagrant abuses and illegalities in the attack directed by Brittany against lawyers. With generic authorizations and without the proper specification and individualization, searches were ordered at 33 lawyers’ homes, with a clear intention of intimidating the professionals.
In addition, Bretas invaded the jurisdiction of the Superior Court of Justice by determining the execution of orders in the homes of three judges: one of them with a mandate in the TRE of Alagoas; another, from TRF-2, married to an attorney; and a third, from TRF-3, also married to an attorney. The ship caused protests of repudiation in the legal sphere.
The ship still has competition errors, since Fecomércio is a private entity and must be investigated by the State Justice; and imputation of crimes, since their leaders cannot be accused of corruption or embezzlement. In another aspect, there are those who understand that, for trying to investigate the ministers of the STJ and the Federal Court of Accounts, the jurisdiction would be the STF.
It was also surprising that Bretas accepted the complaint against part of the whites practically at the same time that she ordered the execution of search and arrest warrants. According to experts, either the complaint was well founded, regardless of registration, or it still needed supporting evidence and should not have been accepted. The Rio Federal Prosecutor’s Office affirms that the two fronts were opened because the investigation is still ongoing.
The attack is based on the complaint of the former president of Fecomercio do Rio de Janeiro Orlando diniz. The businessman has been arrested twice and has been trying to reach a plea deal since 2018, which was only approved, according to the magazine. Time, after he agreed to charge large law firms. In exchange for the complaint, Diniz gains freedom and the right to keep some $ 250,000 deposited abroad, according to the Rio MPF.
Leaked excerpts from Diniz’s complaint still show that the businessman was led by the Federal Public Ministry of Rio in the process. In many cases, it is a prosecutor who explains to Diniz what he meant. When the complainant does not agree with the text attributed to him, the lawyers disagree, stating that they will detail it in the annexes.
Finally, Bretas tried to block exorbitant amounts of law firms and lawyers. In an investigation of alleged deviations of R $ 151 million, the blockades determined by the judge exceeded R $ 1 billion, and they were not made only due to an error in the Central Bank system. He justified the amounts by applying the charge of “collective moral damage” to the amount that would have been illegally received by the office, which could not have been done in the criminal action, according to the understanding of the Second Chamber of the Supreme Court.
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