A retired Brazilian judge has been working for at least 23 years under the false identity of “Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield”. The man, whose real name is José Eduardo Franco dos Reis, was born in 1958 just above Sao Paulo. He also used his real name for many years. But he is said to have assumed his false identity from the 1980s onwards and took it seriously. For example, he forged his identity papers. In 1995, he officially became a judge after completing his training. In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, he is said to have said that he came from English nobility, born in Brazil but raised in the United Kingdom where he lived until he was 25. The man was caught when he wanted to renew his passport in Sao Paulo in October last year. All of his previous documents matched his English names, but something strange stood out when he checked the registration number of his birth certificate. The name José Eduardo Franco suddenly appeared, not an unusual name for a Brazilian. After double-checking all the documents and his fingerprints, it became clear: this man’s name is not Edward Albert Lancelot Dodd Canterbury Caterham Wickfield. The police were informed, after which he was called to the police station to answer for himself. There he claimed to be José Eduardo. And Wickfield? He suddenly appeared to be his twin brother who had been adopted by a British couple, the man claimed. Not long after, the man was officially summoned. But since then, he has completely disappeared. In the meantime, the court has decided to stop the man’s pension, more than 25,000 euros per month. The court hopes that this will encourage the man to come forward.
BHP
BHP faces $47 billion claim in the UK over Brazilian dam collapse that killed 19 and left hundreds homeless. The legal case over Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, the 2015 collapse of the Mariana dam, is seeking up to £36 billion (US$47 billion) in damages. More than 600,000 Brazilians, 46 local governments and around 2,000 companies are suing BHP over the collapse of the dam in southeastern Brazil, which was owned and operated by BHP and Vale (VALE3.SA). The collapse of the dam, which trapped mining waste known as tailings, unleashed a toxic wave that killed 19 people, left thousands homeless, flooded forests and polluted a stretch of the Doce River, considered sacred by the Krenak indigenous tribe. BHP, the world’s largest miner by market value, is contesting liability, saying the London case, one of the largest in English legal history, is a carbon copy of Brazil’s lawsuits and rehabilitation and reparation programs. Nearly $8 billion has already been paid to victims of the disaster through the Renova Foundation, which was set up in 2016. The Brazilian government is in talks with BHP, Vale and Samarco on a nearly $30 billion compensation deal. Pogust Goodhead is representing the claimants. BHP said in a statement that it was “working with the Brazilian authorities and others to find solutions to complete a fair and comprehensive compensation and rehabilitation process.” The hearing at the High Court in London, expected to last up to 12 weeks, will determine whether BHP is liable to the claimants under Brazilian environmental law. It will also consider whether Brazilian municipalities involved in the case have the right to take legal action and the impact of any agreements reached with BHP by claimants involved in the English case. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2020, before the Court of Appeal ruled that the case could proceed.
BHP and Vale also briefly fought in the English courts over their potential liability, before reaching an agreement in July to split the bill for any damages.
Lula da Silva
Despite all kinds of sabotage by Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva won two million more votes. In the final election on October 30, 2022, Lula da Silva won by 1% over Bolsonaro. In the end, Lula won more than 2 million votes over Bolsonaro, 60 million against 58 million. Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attacked each other fiercely during the final debate. Bolsonaro called former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “liar,” “ex-convict” and “gang leader.” Lula’s conviction for corruption was overturned by the Supreme Court last year, allowing him to run again. Bolsonaro had declared that he would either win the election, die, or go to prison. In the end, he announced that he would respect the constitution and make way for Lula. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the newly elected president of Brazil, was inaugurated on January 1, 2023, becoming the third president of a continent that has been plagued by corruption and infighting for decades.
In July 2024, between 10 and 20 tons of fish died in the Piracicaba River in southeastern Brazil due to an illegal discharge from the Estiva’s Sao Jose sugar and ethanol plant in Rio das Pedra. The pollution reached a stream that flows into the Piracicaba River, which runs through the Tanqua Protected Area (also known as Sao Paulo’s mini-Pantanal). The river’s watershed covers 4,838 square miles, making this environmental disaster particularly alarming. The state environmental agency CETESB first reported the mass mortality and the strong odor coming from the river on July 7. The same day, they requested that the Salto Grande hydroelectric plant release more water to dilute the pollution. On July 9, there was an increase in dissolved oxygen levels, improving conditions for the fish to survive. However, another mass die-off was reported in Tanqua, about 37 miles from Piracicaba, where the first incident occurred. The Piracicaba River, historically important as a navigation route and water supply for agriculture, has been hit hard by the disaster. In addition to the environmental problems, a severe drought in the Amazon last year also led to massive fish kills. The number of fires in tropical rainforests has increased by 80 percent in 2024, according to a report by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland. The Amazon rainforest was particularly hard hit. In total, a tropical area roughly the size of Ireland was lost worldwide. It is notable that for the first time since records began, agriculture is not the main cause of tropical forest loss. In previous years, it was mostly farmers who set fires to forests for livestock grazing. But in 2024, drought and heat were the main causes of fires. This is surprising because this is a humid ecosystem that is naturally not prone to fire. The largest area was lost in Brazil, the country with the largest tropical forest area in the world. In 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva managed to reduce deforestation somewhat. But in 2024, the figure rose sharply again. Dozens of fires raged in the south of Brazil and more than thirty cities were on fire alert. São Paulo was shrouded in a gray haze. The fires raged in the region outside the city of São Paulo, one of the most populous cities in Latin America with more than 11 million inhabitants. At least 7,300 government workers and volunteers were deployed across the state to “contain the advance and extinguish these fires.
Two young women from Bahia, Brazil have been diagnosed with Oropouche fever . Both women were under the age of thirty. The Brazilian women had no underlying health conditions. Medical professionals observed symptoms similar to severe dengue fever. It is noted that there are no reports of deaths from Oropouche fever in the worldwide scientific literature. It is possible that more deaths are associated with it. Another suspected death is currently under investigation in the state of Santa Catarina. Oropouche fever is a tropical viral infection. It is named after the Oropouche River (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago), where the causative agent was first identified. The disease can easily be confused with dengue fever. The symptoms are similar: muscle tension, joint stiffness, headache, and vomiting.
Farmer Dirceu Kruger was responsible for the deforestation of 5,600 hectares of Amazon rainforest between 2003 and 2016, in the cities of Boca de Acre and Lábrea in the state of Amazonas, in northwestern Brazil. He must now pay a fine of more than 47 million euros for this. Kruger had trees and vegetation cleared with chainsaws and then set the land on fire, after which he turned it into pasture for his cattle. Evidence for this was provided by satellite images. There is also film footage in which Kruger admits to having done this. In addition to the fine of millions, he must also try to restore the destroyed rainforest, and he is also not allowed to keep cattle in the future. The amount of 47 million was calculated using a model from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The deforested area is said to have led to the emission of 901,000 tonnes of carbon.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has declared a period of mourning for the plane crash that occurred on August 9, 2024, of flight 2283, en route from Cascavel to São Paulo, in which all 62 people on board died. Three days of official mourning have been declared in memory of the tragic accident in Vinhedo. According to the airline, there were 58 passengers and four crew members on board. The ATR 72 , operated by regional airline Voepas, was on a domestic flight and crashed near the metropolis of São Paulo. Images on social media showed the plane spinning out of control in the air and crashing, after which a large plume of black smoke rose into the air. According to local authorities, a house on the ground was damaged, but none of the residents were injured. Video footage circulating on social media shows the aircraft in a so-called ‘flat spin’, suggesting that the crew has lost control of the aircraft. According to the head of CENIPA, the Brazilian investigation centre for air accidents, the black box of the aircraft containing voice recordings and flight data has now been found. A list of all occupants has been published on the Voepass website. The ATR 72-200 involved is over 14 years old and has the registration PS-VPB. It was delivered to Belle Air in 2010 and has been flying at Pelita in Indonesia since 2014. Voepass (formerly known as Passaredo) focuses on operating regional flights. For this purpose, it has fifteen ATR 42s and 72s.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice de Moraes has unblocked Starlink’s finances after it was previously banned from conducting financial transactions in the country. This was based on a finding that Starlink was held responsible for the previously imposed fines, which Musk claimed were unconstitutional against X. The blockade was issued in secret and without giving Starlink the opportunity to appeal. Starlink serves a quarter of a million customers in Brazil, including small businesses, schools and emergency services. The dispute continued, after which the judge also blocked X. The platform was forced to appoint a new legal representative in the country. Residents who still use X could be fined between 10 and 50,000 real. The 20,000 internet providers in the country were ordered to make X inaccessible. By 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, X was already inaccessible in the first parts of the country. Google and Apple were also forced to remove the X application from their respective app stores. The controversy arose when De Moraes gave X.Corp a court order to censor and block a list of public opponents of Lula and other critics. After Musk refused on the grounds of freedom of speech, De Moraes threatened to arrest X.Corp’s staff, whereupon Musk moved his staff to safety and closed the local branch. De Moraes then imposed a fine of 200 million dollars and seized all Starlink assets that had nothing to do with the incident. De Moares forces Trump to reinstate the local branch and station a local representative. But because this risks arrest, Musk rightly refuses. Both De Moares and Lula are violating the constitution by doing so. Musk loses many customers who are now switching en masse to Bluesky. Now that X is no longer there, many users are looking for an alternative. On September 10, X still transferred more than 18 million reais (3 million euros) to the Brazilian government account.
Lula da Silva has fired Silvio Almeida, the Minister for Human Rights, because he is said to have committed sexually inappropriate behavior with several women. One of the victims is a fellow minister. Minister Almeida is said to have kissed the women against their will and indecently touched them. One of them testified about an incident in 2019, in which Almeida is said to have grabbed her in the crotch under her skirt. He is also said to have bullied employees. Almeida himself denies having done anything wrong. He calls all the accusations a campaign to smear his image as a black man in a prominent position”. He says that the dismissal frees up his hands to refute the charges.
One of the victims, Minister Anielle Franco, praised President Lula for his “decisive action, support and solidarity”. Franco is Minister for Racial Equality in the Lula cabinet. Previously, like Almeida, she was a prominent activist. Franco asked for her privacy to be respected and did not want to elaborate on her own experiences with Almeida. She denounced attempts to “blame, smear, shame or pressure victims to speak out at a time of pain and vulnerability”.
On October 2 and 30, 2022, there were elections. 156 million Brazilians eligible to vote were allowed to cast their votes. Not only for a new president, but also for a new Congress. The battle for the presidency was mainly between Jair Bolsonaro (67) for the Liberal Party (PL) and the convicted left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (76) of the Workers’ Party (PT).
Shortly after taking office, Inácio Lula da Silva recognized six regions as indigenous territory. The president of the amnesty commission knelt on live television to apologize to indigenous leader Djanira Krenak for the violence committed against the Krenak population. “On behalf of the Brazilian government, I want to apologize for the suffering inflicted on your people,” Almeida said. In Brazil, it is being called a historic moment. The amnesty commission investigated the crimes of the dictatorial regime that was in power between 1964 and 1985. For example, people were locked up in detention centers by the regime. Djanira Krenak hopes that the apology will lead to concrete actions, such as reparations, compensation and the return of land to the indigenous population.
It concerns more than 2000 square kilometers, mainly located in the Amazon region. With this recognition, he is fulfilling his campaign promise. The recognition is necessary to protect the indigenous territories against (illegal) logging, mining and agriculture, among other things. Brazil has about 730 territories, most of which are located in the Amazon region. 434 of these are officially recognized. Farmer, Dirceu Kruger, was responsible for the deforestation of 5600 hectares of Amazon rainforest between 2003 and 2016, in the cities of Boca de Acre and Lábrea in the state of Amazonas, in the northwest of Brazil. He must now pay a fine of more than 47 million euros for this. Kruger had trees and vegetation cleared with chainsaws and then set the piece of land on fire, after which he turned it into pasture for his cattle. Evidence for this was provided by satellite images. There are also film recordings on which Kruger admits to having done this. In addition to the million dollar fine, he must also try to restore the destroyed rainforest, and he will also be banned from keeping cattle in the future. The amount of 47 million was calculated using a model from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The deforested area would have led to the emission of 901,000 tons of carbon.
On July 21, 2023, Lula decreed that licensed hunters, marksmen and collectors would be limited to six weapons instead of 30, that hunters would be allowed to possess fewer bullets and that gun owners would only be allowed to enter public spaces with loaded weapons if they were on their way to a gun club. The federal police would now be responsible for checking weapons, instead of the army. Under Bolsonaro, the number of gun owners had previously increased from over 117,000 to almost 800,000 and he regularly told his supporters that they could choose to arm themselves or risk being “enslaved.” The number of rapes increased by 8.2 percent in 2022, with 74,930 rapes, more than eight per hour. Over 60 percent of the victims were under the age of fourteen and 10 percent were under the age of four.
Despite all kinds of sabotage by Bolsonaro, Lula da Silva won two million more votes. In the final election on October 30, 2022, Lula da Silva won by 1% over Bolsonaro. In the end, Lula won more than 2 million votes over Bolsonaro, 60 million against 58 million. Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attacked each other fiercely during the final debate. Bolsonaro called former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva a “liar,” “ex-convict” and “gang leader.” Lula’s conviction for corruption was overturned by the Supreme Court last year, allowing him to run again. Bolsonaro had declared that he would either win the election, die, or go to prison. In the end, he announced that he would respect the constitution and make way for Lula. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the newly elected president of Brazil, was inaugurated on January 1, 2023, becoming president for the third time.
Key issues for Brazil’s 214 million people were the country’s deteriorating quality of life, high inflation and rampant corruption. For the European Union, Bolsonaro’s defeat is an advantage to get the ratification of the 2019 trade agreement with Mercosur countries moving again. This was previously not possible because French President Emmanuel Macron only wanted to support the agreement if Bolsonaro took action against deforestation. During his campaign, Lula da Silva promised to increase the minimum wage and provide more money for the poor. The flexible gun control law is being addressed and the protection of the Amazon rainforest is also high on Lula’s agenda. After the election results, Bolsonaro supporters protested en masse and demanded that the army intervene because the elections were said to have been manipulated. Bolsonaro challenged a number of presidential election results and asked the court to invalidate the votes from some electronic voting machines. Malfunctions with old voting machines were said to have “tainted” the elections. The votes cast on these machines should therefore be declared invalid, Bolsonaro and his supporters argued. The electoral commission rejected the complaint and sentenced Bolsonaro’s party to a fine of 23 million reais (more than 4 million euros) for undermining the electoral system.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has announced significant spending cuts to help meet the country’s fiscal targets. The announcement provided temporary relief to markets, with swap rates falling and a stronger Brazilian real. Haddad announced that the government plans to implement a total of 25.9 billion reais ($4.7 billion) in spending cuts by 2025. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva approved the plan and ordered the economic team to adhere to the country’s fiscal framework. Haddad’s announcement comes after weeks of uncertainty over Lula’s willingness to agree to spending cuts and growing concerns over the minister’s efforts to improve the government’s accounts. Lawmakers last month rejected Haddad’s latest proposal to raise revenues, leaving the minister without an alternative plan to eliminate Brazil’s primary budget deficit, excluding interest payments. Earlier this year, the economic team had weakened its 2025 budget target due to higher spending, backing away from its original goal of achieving a primary surplus. Lula had publicly stated that he would only agree to cuts if Haddad convinced him they were necessary.
Da Silva remained the winner of the election but had to deploy security forces in early 2023 to take control of key government buildings after Bolsonaro supporters stormed the parliament building, Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital Brasilia for three hours. More than 400 arrests were made. Da Silva announced the federal intervention and imposed measures until 31 January. Shortly after a press conference by Lula, security forces began arresting protesters in government buildings. Earlier, Brazilian police had already intervened and used tear gas to disperse protesters around the parliament building. Bolsonaro supporters broke through the barriers, pulling a police officer from his horse. Extensive damage was caused to government buildings, with furniture and windows broken. One floor of the parliament building was flooded when the sprinkler system was activated after protesters set fire to the carpet. A few days later, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo to demand prison sentences for former president Bolsonaro and his arrested supporters. The demonstrators also demanded the preservation of democracy in the country. “No amnesty for Bolsonaro,” they chanted, among other things. Bolsonaro denies any involvement and says he condemns the attack. Party leader Costa Neto stressed that “anyone caught destroying government buildings or using other forms of violence” will be immediately expelled. According to him, the attack was the work of an “extremist minority” that “does not represent” his party. During a house search, the police confiscated Bolsonaro’s phone, among other things. Six accomplices were arrested, including Colonel Mauro Cid Barbosa, Bolsonaro’s right-hand man during his presidency. He is said to have played a central role in the falsification of his data and that of Bolsonaro and that of his wife and daughter for vaccination certificates, in order to be able to flee to the US. 35,000 dollars in cash and 16,000 Brazilian reais (more than 3,000 euros) were found in his home. Bolsonaro’s two personal security guards were also arrested, as well as João Carlos de Sousa Brecha, the municipal secretary of Duque de Caxias, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro. There, the false data is said to have actually been entered into the ministry’s computer systems. The conclusion of an investigative committee was that almost forty allies of Bolsonaro were guilty of the attempted coup.In addition, Bolsonaro himself is said to have played a coordinating role. After declaring a state of emergency and invalidating the election results, he wanted to arrest the judge and president of the electoral court and then call new elections. Based on these findings, the investigative committee advised the judiciary to prosecute, which resulted in a trial in February 2025. At the same time, his henchmen were plotting Operation “Groengeldolk”, a plot to assassinate Lula and Geraldo Alckmin. Both the army and the air force did not want to cooperate with his plans and therefore an assassination plan by General Mario Fernandes was called off at the last minute. Bolsonaro left for Florida two days before the transfer of power and stayed there for three months. A campaign against his presence there was supported by members of the Brazilian community in Florida and in other regions such as New York, Boston and Washington DC. In the United States, there were several organizations of Brazilians, Americans and congressmen who rejected the presence of the former president who caused innumerable damages to democracy and the Brazilian people in the 4 years he presided over a government marked by corruption, violence and mismanagement. Bolsonaro returned to Brazil on Thursday, March 30, 2023. The Liberal Party appointed Jair Bolsonaro as honorary president of this party. The invitation for the honorary post was made by the president of the PL, Valdemar Costa Neto. Bolsonaro joined this party in November 2021, after having been without a party for about two years, after leaving the PSL, the party for which he was elected president in 2018. In Sao Paulo, tens of thousands of supporters protested in support. The Brazilian Federal Court of Auditors had already ordered Bolsonaro in mid-March 2023 to deliver within five days the very valuable set of jewelry he received from the government of Saudi Arabia. He was also ordered to hand over a complete list of all other gifts he received during his presidency. Under Brazilian law, public officials are only allowed to keep gifts that have “very high personal but minimal financial value.” The ruling comes days after Brazilian police announced an investigation into an earlier attempt by Bolsonaro to smuggle jewelry given to him into Brazil without declaring it. The Saudi king donated the jewelry, worth more than 3 million euros in 2021.
BRICS
The BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have invited Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt and Ethiopia to also become members of their cooperation. More than forty countries had shown interest in becoming members of BRICS. The five BRICS countries make up about 40 percent of the world’s population in terms of population and present themselves as an alternative to the rich, Western cooperations such as the G7. The BRICS members are critical of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. An alternative to the worldwide standard payment in dollars for gas and oil is also being sought. The so-called BRICS countries are investigating the introduction of their own common BRICS currency for mutual trade, in addition to their own national currencies.
New agreements were made with France at the end of March 2024 on new defense cooperation and shared environmental goals, including a billion-euro investment program for the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and French Guiana. More than twenty cooperation agreements were signed behind closed doors. 30.8 million hectares of Brazilian green areas were burned in 2024, partly to make way for pasture or plantations for cattle feed.
Under the theme ‘Strengthening cooperation in the Global South for more inclusive and sustainable governance’, Brazil has developed a comprehensive agenda focused on six main priorities:
- Global health cooperation: initiatives aimed at ensuring equitable access to medicines and vaccines, including the launch of the BRICS Partnership for the Elimination of Socially Determined Diseases and Neglected Tropical Diseases.
- Trade, Investment and Finance: Discussions on financial market reforms, the use of local currencies and the development of alternative payment platforms to improve trade and investment flows.
- Climate Change: Adoption of a BRICS Climate Leadership Agenda, including a Leaders’ Framework Statement on Climate Finance to guide structural changes in the financial sector.
- Governance of Artificial Intelligence: promoting inclusive and responsible international governance of AI technologies to harness their potential for social, economic and environmental development.
- Multilateral Peace and Security Architecture: efforts to reform global peace and security systems to effectively address conflicts, prevent humanitarian crises, and promote diplomatic solutions.
- Institutional development: improving the structure and coherence of the BRICS countries to ensure effective governance and decision-making.
In preparation for the summit, Brazil will coordinate more than 100 ministerial and technical meetings in Brazil from February to July 2025. These meetings are intended to strengthen cooperation and pave the way for the leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The summit comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions, particularly with the United States. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS nations if they seek alternatives to the US dollar in international trade, underscoring ongoing discussions within the bloc over the introduction of an alternative payment system independent of the dollar.
Jair Bolsonaro
The far-right and controversial military man Jair Bolsonaro won the 2018 presidential election with 55 percent of the vote, well ahead of the 45 percent of his opponent Fernando Haddad of the left-wing Workers’ Party. Bolsonaro made controversial statements. For example, he expressed his admiration for the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) and made racist and homophobic statements and immediately indicated that he wanted more deforestation of the Amazon region, resulting in 9.6 percent more deforestation. (More than 11,000 km2). The Brazilian mangrove forests and dune landscapes have also no longer been protected since he took office. The Bolsonaro government has repealed the environmental laws that have regulated this since 2002. According to the WWF, farmers in the area quickly seized their opportunity to burn down parts of the forest, before Bolsonaro steps down on January 1, 2023 and makes way for Lula da Silvia. The Brazilian government’s so-called Amazon Fund has also been active again since Lula took office. The fund supports projects to combat deforestation. The fund’s assets were frozen by Bolsonaro. The Amazon Fund manages at least 1.2 billion dollars (1.14 billion euros), donated by Norway and Germany. With that money, the fund supports more than a hundred initiatives to protect the Amazon region. The fund has now paid out more than 594 million dollars. The fund’s assets were frozen during Bolsonaro’s term of office. Bolsonaro allowed project developers, the tourism industry and the fishing industry to benefit from the opportunities to exploit the 1.6 million hectares of freed coastal areas. In 2020, 4.2 million hectares of primary tropical rainforest disappeared. That is 12 percent more than in 2019. At the global online climate summit, Bolsonaro proposed to completely stop deforestation of the rainforest by 2030 in exchange for a substantial financial contribution from the US, starting with a down payment of 1 billion dollars and then structurally 10 billion per year. Only then would he stop deforestation and start investing in the development of sustainable business models in the Amazon region. Major supermarkets in the Netherlands are meanwhile boycotting the import of meat products that originate from the endangered Amazon regions. Research has shown that CO2 emissions doubled during his time, partly due to that deforestation.
He vetoed a bill that would have made sanitary pads and tampons free to nearly six million underprivileged girls and women in Brazil, saying it would “unfairly privilege a certain group and go against the public interest.” The bill was part of a raft of laws aimed at eradicating “period poverty” in Brazil, after it emerged that more than 700,000 Brazilian girls do not have access to a toilet, and that a quarter of Brazilian girls regularly stay home from school because they cannot afford to buy pads or tampons. A bill passed by 34 Brazilian lawmakers would provide free tampons and sanitary pads to some 5.6 million of the country’s most vulnerable women, including the homeless, prisoners and poor students in public schools. The project would cost 13 million euros annually. According to the Brazilian Financial Health Index (I-SFB) survey, the average Brazilian adult has a low financial health score. Nearly 80% of respondents do not know if they can pay their monthly bills and 55% are concerned about paying school fees.
Bolsonaro has previously displayed misogynistic behavior. When he was still a congressman, he told a female colleague that she was “not even worth being raped.” He also said in an interview that he would never pay women the same salary as men. He also once dismissed a leader of the Brazilian women’s movement as a “big pot.” In October, Bolsonaro said during a press conference that he no longer wants to be “bored” with questions about the coronavirus pandemic and declared that vaccination could give you AIDS. Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets in 94 cities across the country to demand Bolsonaro’s ouster. In addition to the disastrous handling of the coronavirus pandemic, they were also protesting the exorbitantly increased cost of living since he came to power.
Bolsonaro was ordered by a judge in São Paulo to pay around 3,000 euros in damages for macho behavior and derogatory remarks against investigative journalist Patricia Campos Mello. Campos works for Folha De S. Paulo and wrote an article in 2018 about an organization that spread fake news during the election campaign to discredit the left-wing Workers’ Party. Bolsonaro insinuated on YouTube that she had tried to extract a scoop about him from an employee of a digital marketing company in exchange for sexual favors. In January, Bolsonaro’s son and member of parliament Eduardo also had to pay a fine of 4,500 euros for inflicting moral damages. More than a year ago, the Brazilian Federation of Journalists published a report with examples of 428 attacks on press freedom in the country, twice as many as in 2019. In forty percent of these cases, Bolsonaro was directly linked to them. Brazilian justice officials filed formal charges against Bolsonaro on November 21, for the coup attempt, in conjunction with other crimes committed.
At an election rally in 2018, Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach by a bystander and taken away with serious injuries. As a result, he was unable to campaign and has since been wearing a stab-proof vest and has had abdominal complaints. Bolsonaro underwent another operation on his stomach on April 13, 2025 and is still in the intensive care unit of the hospital. He must remain there until he has fully recovered. According to the doctors, the first 48 hours after the operation should show how quickly his condition improves. In any case, the doctors are satisfied with how his condition has developed in the first twelve hours. Bolsonaro is said to be awake and conscious and making jokes. However, the doctors of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro do not expect his recovery to be “quick.” According to the doctors, the operation was “extremely complex” because the former president has undergone several operations on his stomach in the past. Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach in 2018 and has regularly had problems with his intestines since then. This time he had an obstruction that caused “excruciating pain,” his wife said.
Brazil is, after the United States, the country hardest hit by Corona with 700,000 deaths. The US had a higher mortality rate with 1.1 million deaths. The epidemic has killed at least 6.8 million people worldwide. In March 2020, Bolsonaro himself was infected with the Corona virus by his communications chief, Fabio Wajngarten, after he had visited President Trump in Florida with a delegation. Nevertheless, he was against any form of lockdown. From March 30, foreign airline passengers were banned. The measure lasted thirty days and did not apply to foreigners living in Brazil. Jair Bolsonaro called the fear of Corona “hysterical” and wanted administrators to reverse measures, because the famine that the current measures could create in the long term could possibly be deadlier than the virus itself. The court ordered the Bolsonaro government to also better protect local tribes against the virus. Health Minister Queiroga tested positive after attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 21, 2021, together with President Bolsonaro. The minister had to go into quarantine in New York. The weekend before, a delegation member who had traveled to New York in preparation for Bolsonaro also tested positive. He had already gone into quarantine earlier. Brazil has passed the 700,000 corona death mark three years after the first death.
In São Paulo, the number of homeless people had increased significantly under Bolsonaro. The country could not cope with the high number of corona-related deaths, due to a great lack of space in cemeteries. In some cities, old graves were cleared to make room for the many victims. Funerals also took place in the evening. Hospitals had shortages of anesthetics and supplies, among other things. Doctors first diluted anesthetics for fear that they would run out. When that happened, they had to resort to paralytics. To keep the patients under control, some had to be tied up. To mitigate the economic damage caused by the corona crisis and the lockdowns, the Brazilian central bank has lowered interest rates and the government has come up with large support packages.
On March 30, 2019, six ministers were dismissed, after which the top of the army also resigned a day later. The three most important military officers, responsible for the navy, the air force and the army, resigned on March 31. Bolsonaro had to replace the entire top of the army. In just over a year, Bolsonaro has already lost ten ministers. Minister of Health Nelson Teich resigned after only a month. Teich disagreed with Bolsonaro’s corona policy. Among other things, they had a difference of opinion about immediately treating patients with the malaria drug chloroquine. Teich only wanted to use that drug for the most serious cases. Bolsonaro also dismissed Teich’s predecessor Luiz Henrique Mandetta on April 16 because they strongly disagreed about the approach to the pandemic. Mandetta wanted the people to stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus, while Bolsonaro wanted the opposite because of the collapsing economy. His successor, General Eduardo Pazuello, is already being replaced by Doctor Marcelo Queiroga. The existing policy was continued and the efforts to vaccinate the population en masse against Covid-19 were It will take one to two weeks before the appointment is final. The figures around the coronavirus were put back on the official website after a short interruption, after the Supreme Court demanded it.
Alessandro Moretti is suspected of having been part of the illegal espionage network within the service that worked directly for former President Jair Bolsonaro. Carlos Bolsonaro, one of Bolsonaro’s sons, is also linked to that network. Searches were carried out at his home in Rio de Janeiro. He is said to have received surveillance information from intelligence service ABIN about Bolsonaro’s political opponents. The legal problems surrounding Bolsonaro and his inner circle have been piling up since the end of his term in 2022. For example, an investigation was conducted into his role in the riots of 8 January 2023 in the capital Brasilia, when his supporters stormed government buildings in an attempt to undo his election defeat by Lula.
Senator Major Olimpio, Bolsonaro’s former right-hand man in Congress, said there was a broad political movement to halt the Lava Jato task force investigation and cancel ongoing trials. There has been strong pressure from politicians to close the investigation, launching a parliamentary inquiry that has questioned its work and appealing to the Supreme Court to end its investigations. Left-wing Senator Randolfe Rodrigues has joined Olimpio in calling for the Lava Jato investigation to be kept open, as there are 400 investigations still ongoing. More than six years after it began with an investigation into a Brasilia gas station that housed a car wash, the task force led by 40-year-old lawyer Deltan Dallagnol still enjoys the support of most Brazilians. Lava Jato has resulted in 295 arrests, 278 convictions and 4.3 billion reais (about 667 million euros) in bribes returned to the state coffers over the past seven years. Despite this, the team was quietly disbanded at the end of January 2023.
To avoid the threat of impeachment over corruption scandals involving his family and to advance his legislative agenda, Bolsonaro has sought to build alliances with politicians he once pilloried and who are the main proponents of ending Lava Jato. On the left, many in the Workers’ Party also wanted to see the downfall of a team of prosecutors who jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for accepting bribes, which the party has labeled a politically motivated prosecution.
The country’s economic collapse, Bolsonaro said, was caused by the restrictions imposed by governors in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic. Bolsonaro gained popularity thanks to the emergency aid provided to 68 million Brazilians for nine months. The emergency aid was stopped because of the high deficits and debts that arose. Brazil is on the brink of a social abyss, said Marcelo Neri, director of the social policy center of a Brazilian development think tank.
A parliamentary inquiry committee investigated Bolsonaro’s corona policy in May 2021. Seven of the eleven senators who are part of the inquiry committee are outspoken critics of the president. The committee investigated how it could happen that healthcare in the Amazon city of Manaus was in complete chaos. Patients could not be ventilated because there was a lack of oxygen. The shortage of vaccines was also inexplicable. Pfizer offered 70 million doses of the vaccine for sale at the time, but Bolsonaro did not accept that offer. The federal government had been warned, but acted far too late. The controversial hydroxychloroquine that Bolsonaro recommended and promoted for a lot of money for covid patients also raised questions. When Bolsonaro tested positive in 2020, he posted a video on Facebook in which he takes the malaria drug. In a hearing that lasted no less than seven hours, former Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta opened an attack on the president. In addition to him, the other three health ministers who Bolsonaro forced out during the pandemic are also being questioned. Bolsonaro ignored all scientific advice and the president’s attitude had negative consequences, Mandetta said. Active-duty general Eduardo Pazuello said he could not come to the Senate in Brasilia because he would be in quarantine after contact with infected subordinates. During Pazuello’s term as health minister, the number of infections and deaths skyrocketed. He was eventually forced to resign under great pressure from Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress. The Brazilian senator leading the parliamentary inquiry into how Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro handled the coronavirus crisis said the president probably never wanted to buy COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, Bolsonaro gambled on herd immunity. Bolsonaro has actively opposed a parliamentary inquiry. In 1992, a poll led to the departure of then-president Fernando Collor and the same fate could have befallen Bolsonaro, although he still enjoyed the support of around 25 to 30 percent of voters.
X Corp was ordered by the Supreme Court to block popular (Bolsonaro) accounts in Brazil. If X did not comply, the company would be fined 100,000 reais ($19,740) per day.
Rio de Janeiro state law enforcement agencies launched a large-scale operation in mid-July 2024 in ten poor neighborhoods, deploying nearly 2,000 military and civilian personnel to regain control of areas dominated by drug traffickers and militias.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Cláudio Castro stressed the importance of the operation, stating that the state government’s security forces “are on the streets fighting criminal organizations that want to hold the population hostage.” In addition to the navy, the operation involves the municipal guard, cable television and internet providers, and water, electricity and gas companies. The favelas targeted include Rio das Pedras, Terreirao, Cesar Maia/Coroado, Cidade de Deus, Muzema, Gardenia Azul, Tijuquinha, Fontela, Morro do Banco and Sitio do Pai Joao. The proliferation of organized crime in Rio’s western zone has led to intense confrontations between law enforcement agencies and rival factions of drug trafficking groups and militias. The militias, which were formed in the late 1980s to combat drug trafficking, have since expanded into land grabbing and real estate ventures, controlling more than half of the territory in Rio’s metropolitan area.
In September 2023, those involved in the coup were convicted. The judge found them guilty and one of the suspects was sentenced to fourteen years in prison, the other two to seventeen years. The convicts must also pay a fine of around 6 million euros for vandalism. This amount will later be shared with other suspects of the storming who have not yet been tried. A parliamentary investigation committee wanted Bolsonaro to be prosecuted for the storming of government buildings, plotting a coup and other crimes committed. The committee sent recommendations to the judiciary for this. A federal court had previously decided that Bolsonaro would not be allowed to run for re-election until 2030. A total of around 1,500 suspects were arrested, including an air force colonel and several politicians from Bolsonaro’s political party. Federal police arrested Walter Braga Netto, Bolsonaro’s former defense minister and chief of staff, on December 14 over his 2022 coup attempt. He allegedly tried to prevent the transfer of power and planned to assassinate Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, along with 36 others on Bolsonaro’s behalf. Walter Braga Netto had been Bolsonaro’s chief of staff since 2020 and defense minister between 2021 and 2022. Bolsonaro was eventually charged in mid-February 2025 with leading a plot to overthrow the government and undermine the country’s 40-year-old democracy after his 2022 election defeat. Brazil’s federal police previously charged Jair Bolsonaro with money laundering and criminal involvement in connection with the undeclared 1.2 million euros in diamonds he received from Saudi Arabia during his term in office. Bolsonaro and a dozen other suspects intended to sell the embezzled jewelry abroad. The proceeds from the sale were paid to Bolsonaro in cash.
Organized gangs
In Rio de Janeiro, at least 36 city buses, 4 trucks and a train were set on fire by organized gang members on October 23, 2023. The fires were set in nine different locations in the city. Cláudio Castro, the governor of the state of the same name, speaks of an act of terrorism and has promised to strike back at organized crime. According to Castro, twelve arrests have already been made. The arson is said to be in retaliation for the death of gang leader Matheus da Silva Rezende. He was killed earlier on Monday during a shootout with special police units. Rezende was a relative of Luis Antonio da Silva Braga, who heads the largest militia in Rio de Janeiro. Organized gangs are a growing problem in the state, and they behave like the mafia and are also said to have political connections. In more and more areas of the province, such gangs are in fact in charge. The army will be deployed from 1 November in the fight against crime and drug trafficking. Soldiers have been sent to the main ports and airports. In October, three doctors were murdered in a bar in Rio de Janeiro after one of them was mistaken for a gang member. The Customs Services of the Netherlands and Brazil will jointly take additional measures to combat drug trafficking. This agreement was made by State Secretary Aukje de Vries of Finance (Benefits and Customs) with the Vice Minister of the Federal Tax Service of Brazil Adriana Gomes Rêgo. In a Letter of Intent, they agreed to exchange scan images of containers. In addition, they agreed to work together to stop the smuggling of synthetic drugs via the post and they will exchange knowledge about underwater robots.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has decided to lift the ban on the possession of cannabis for personal use. The country will now treat possession of small amounts as an administrative offense with no further legal consequences. The amount of cannabis a person is allowed to have on them has yet to be determined. Selling drugs will remain illegal. The tolerance arrangement will probably lead to a reduction in the prison population. Brazil currently has around 840,000 people in prison, many of them for possession of small amounts of drugs. Brazil, a country of around 210 million people, has the third highest prison population in the world after the United States and China.
In early February 2024, the local federal police, acting on orders from the Supreme Court, again raided the homes of Bolsonaro and his allies. Several documents were seized, including Bolsonaro’s passport. Two of his advisers were arrested. Bolsonaro is temporarily banned from leaving the country. After the raid, Bolsonaro called on his supporters to take to the streets. He and the demonstrators waved Israeli flags in protest against President Lula. Lula recently compared the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust. That statement led to a diplomatic conflict with Israel. Bolsonaro called Lula’s remarks “criminal”. The 69-year-old Bolsonaro then fled to the Hungarian embassy from 12 to 14 February 2024. According to him, there was no question of “hiding”, but he was there “to get updates on the political landscape of both countries”. The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has asked the Hungarian ambassador in the country for clarification.
On March 24, 2024, two politicians and a former police chief of Rio de Janeiro, Rivaldo Barbos, were arrested as possible masterminds of the 2018 murder of then-councilor Marielle Franco. Member of Parliament Chiquinho Brazão and his brother Domingo Brazão, a councilor at Rio’s Court of Auditors, were also arrested as suspected accomplices. Marielle Franco was shot dead at the time together with her driver in the center of Rio de Janeiro Franco on the way back from a meeting where the position of black women was discussed. The death of the then left-wing councilor is considered a political assassination and has never been solved. The black, openly bisexual single mother was born and raised in one of the city’s favelas. She set herself up as an advocate for black women and favela residents and regularly criticized the harsh police action in the slums. The victims’ car was shot nine times from another car. Franco and her driver were killed instantly. A press officer who was also in the car was injured. Chiquinho Brazão is an ally of former President Bolsonaro. He and his brother are also said to have ties to notorious militias. In 2008, Franco worked as an assistant to then-MP Marcelo Freixo, who investigated the militias. In Freixo’s final report, 226 people were identified as suspected militia members, including one of the alleged masterminds of Franco’s murder, Domingo Brazão. Rivaldo Barbosa was police chief in Rio at the time of the murder. He had already been arrested once on suspicion of obstructing the investigation. Almost a year after the sensational murder, two former police officers were arrested. One is said to have fired the shots, the other was, according to the authorities, the driver of the car from which the shots were fired. The driver confessed to the murder in 2023. The shooter is said to have made a deal with the authorities in January. His confession would have led to the arrests of the three possible masterminds of the murder. During the administration of ex-president Bolsonaro, the investigation was virtually at a standstill, but President Lula de Silva revived the investigation and even appointed , the sister of the murdered councillor Anielle Franco as Minister of Racial Equality. The two former police officers were convicted of the murder on 31 October 2014. The two men convicted are the shooter and the driver of the car from which the shots were fired. Ronnie Lessa and Élcio de Queiroz received sentences of 79 and 60 years respectively.
Rabobank is the second largest foreign financier of deforestation in Brazil. The result is natural destruction, animal suffering and human rights violations. Rabobank finances hundreds of farmers in Brazil who are guilty of illegal deforestation while claiming to have a “zero tolerance policy”. 753 loans were provided to 326 farmers who were sanctioned for illegal deforestation in the Cerrado region. There were also 39 farmers whose loans were not withdrawn after the national environmental authority Ibama imposed a sanction. The most recent loan to a farmer who deforested was concluded in August 2023. Rabobank finances hundreds of farmers in Brazil who are guilty of illegal deforestation while claiming to have a “zero tolerance policy”. 753 loans were provided to 326 farmers who were sanctioned for illegal deforestation. There were also 39 farmers whose loans were not withdrawn after the national environmental authority Ibama imposed a sanction. The most recent loan to a farmer who deforested was made in August 2023. From March 2024, banks will no longer be allowed to provide development loans to illegal deforesters. This is the result of a policy change by the Brazilian development bank BNDES.
Rainforest
Tens of thousands of hectares of protected Amazon rainforest are being cleared to make way for a new highway, due to be built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém. The new four-lane highway is set to ease traffic into the city during the November 2025 conference, which is expected to attract more than 50,000 people.
The local government claims the highway is “sustainable” and is a “major mobility intervention.” It is set to include animal crossings, bike lanes, and solar-powered lighting. Some local residents and conservationists are outraged by the decision, citing the environmental implications. The Amazon plays a crucial role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity, and critics say the deforestation is the antithesis of the goal of a climate summit. Scientists fear the road will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt wildlife movements. “Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.” Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Climate Minister Marina Silva say this will be a historic summit because “it is a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon.” According to the president, the meeting will be an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Amazon, show the forest to the world and present what the federal government has done to protect it.
The Amazon region in Brazil covers almost 7.8 million square kilometers. The largest rainforest in the world is spread across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Suriname, Ecuador and Guyana, but 64 percent (5 million km2) of the area is in Brazil. Due to the growing global demand for gold, soy, palm oil and corn, deforestation increased rapidly. The Netherlands buys more than 5 billion euros worth of mainly soy per year and therefore also contributes to deforestation, but also supports Russia, which in turn is Brazil’s largest fertilizer supplier. Deforestation in the Amazon region increased alarmingly under the Bolsonaro regime in July 2019. According to the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), approximately 2,254 square kilometers were deforested in July 2019, an increase of 278 percent compared to a year earlier. In 2020, half as much nature was destroyed as in the same period in 2019. More than 120,000 hectares. President Bolsonaro is said to favor supporters in the logging, mining and agricultural sectors and promised more agriculture and logging in the Amazon and also granted more licenses to the mining industry. Bolsonaro argued that mining in the Amazon could give the Brazilian economy a huge boost. For example, mining niobium is a huge money maker. Niobium is strategically important because it is used in the nuclear, defense, gas distribution and electronics industries, but also as superalloys, which operate at high temperatures in jet engine turbines. Meanwhile, animals from livestock farmers in the area died from the poison Agropox, used by large soy companies. A thick layer of toxic foam covered the Tietê River in mid-October 2021. Wastewater from 39 cities in the metropolitan area flowed into the water, killing all life in the river. Thousands of dead fish washed ashore and a terrible odor hung in the air. In July 2024, between 10 and 20 tons of fish died in the Piracicaba River in southeastern Brazil due to an illegal discharge from the Estiva’s Sao Jose sugar and ethanol plant in Rio das Pedra. The pollution reached a stream that flows into the Piracicaba River, which runs through the Tanqua Protected Area (also called Sao Paulo’s mini-Pantanal). The river’s watershed covers 4,838 square miles, making this environmental disaster particularly alarming. The state environmental agency CETESB first reported the mass mortality and the strong odor coming from the river on July 7. The same day, they requested that the Salto Grande hydroelectric plant release more water to dilute the pollution. On July 9, there was an increase in dissolved oxygen levels, improving conditions for the fish to survive. However, another mass death was reported at Tanqua, about 37 miles from Piracicaba, where the first incident occurred.The Piracicaba River, historically important as a navigation route and water supply for agriculture, has been hit hard by this disaster. In addition to the environmental problems, a severe drought in the Amazon last year also led to massive fish kills.
After Germany, Norway also stopped contributing to the fund to protect the Amazon region. Over the past eleven years, the Norwegians paid more than 830 million euros and in 2019 this would amount to more than 30 million euros. In May and June 2019, an average of 1 hectare of forest was cut down per minute per month. In May, no less than 739 square kilometers of rainforest disappeared. Most of the emissions were caused by fires that were started to make room for the production of soy and meat. Between 2010 and 2018, the average CO2 emissions of the area was 0.24 billion tons per year. After Bolsonaro came to power, this roughly doubled to 0.52 billion tons in 2020. At its peak, 11,088 square kilometers of forest disappeared in one year.
Deforestation fell by 66 percent in July 2023 compared to the same month a year earlier. Deforestation in the first seven months of 2023 fell by 42.5 percent compared to the same period last year. Despite the decline, an area of 500 square kilometers was deforested. The number of endangered golden lion tamarins in the rainforest is also growing again. In the 1970s, there were only 200 golden lion tamarins in the wild and since then they have been protected. There are now more than 4,800. Leaders of nine Amazon countries will hold a two-day summit on the Amazon rainforest in August 2023. The summit will be held in Belém. 60 percent of the Amazon region is in Brazil, the remaining 40 percent is in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Due to the extreme heat, around 2,400 forest fires broke out in mid-November 2023. The Amazon region is experiencing the worst drought since records began 120 years ago. The water level of the region’s main rivers is at an unusually low level. The national development bank (BNDES) has launched a plan to restore 60,000 square kilometers of destroyed rainforest. This will involve an investment of up to 1 billion reais, almost 190 million euros, starting in 2024. This reforestation should be completed in 2030.
Brazil Iron
In the mountains of Bahia, serious environmental and health problems have been caused by a British mining project. Brazil Iron claims its “sustainable” mining could reduce carbon emissions and create jobs. However, locals are reporting health problems and serious environmental damage as a result of the mine’s activities in the UK courts. The company ceased operations in 2022 due to licensing issues and is awaiting a new permit. An ongoing lawsuit involves 103 claimants seeking damages for health and environmental damage between 2011 and 2022. The company argues that the claims are without merit and could damage the local economy. The company plans to challenge the jurisdiction of the UK court, while claimants argue that the case should be heard in the region where the company is based. Backed by global investors, Brazil Iron aims to be a leading producer of green iron, using renewable energy sources.
In October 2023, there was a massive dolphin death in the Amazon. In Lago de Tefé, an inland lake, thousands of fish and more than a hundred dolphins washed ashore due to extremely high water temperatures of almost 40 degrees Celsius. Northern Brazil has been suffering from extreme drought for some time, causing the water level in the rivers in the Amazon to drop by meters. The Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity speaks of an ‘ecological emergency’. Due to heat, the oxygen in the water decreases and that could be the possible cause. About 70,000 people live near Lake Tefé.
The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 78 as of May 5, 2024. More than 115,000 people were left homeless. The floods have affected more than two-thirds of the state’s nearly 500 cities. Flooding has damaged roads and bridges, caused landslides and caused a partial collapse of a dam at a small hydroelectric plant. More than 400,000 people were left without power, while nearly a third of the state’s population was without water. In Porto Alegre, Lake Guaiba exceeded its highest recorded water level, prompting the suspension of flights at the international airport since Friday
More than a million people have already been infected with dengue fever due to the heavy rainfall and hospitals are full of patients. South America and the Caribbean are struggling with an outbreak of dengue fever, or breakbone fever caused by the Aedes aegypti, or dengue or yellow fever mosquito. A single bite from the dengue mosquito can lead to infection. The female mosquito transmits the disease by sucking blood from an infected person and then biting a healthy person. Not everyone bitten by the striped mosquito gets dengue, and the symptoms are not equally severe in everyone. Vaccinations are being carried out extensively to keep the disease under control. Six states (Acre, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina) and the capital district of Brasília have now declared a health emergency following the outbreak of dengue fever.
At least three more people have died in floods in southern Brazil in June 2025. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, rivers have burst their banks in recent days due to persistent heavy rainfall, forcing more than 6,000 people to leave their homes.
The three fatalities were all traveling by car when they crashed. One was driving over a bridge when it was swept away by the strong current. Another person’s car was hit by a falling tree. The third victim was driving through a flooded area. Her husband is still missing.
In the state capital, Porto Alegre, three dens have been closed as a precaution. Brazilian media report that this is being done with sandbags, because the flood defences are still under construction.
The situation is not yet as serious as it was last May, when dozens of people died and more than 100,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to flooding.
Governor Leite of Rio Grande do Sul says his state is now better prepared for severe weather, pointing to improvements in water management, such as the dredging of rivers.
Bribery and corruption
A submarine sale to Brazil has been under investigation and has received special attention since 2016, resulting in searches on June 26 and June 28 at various Thales locations in France, the Netherlands and Spain. The investigation involved “suspected corruption of a foreign official, criminal conspiracy and money laundering in connection with the sale of submarines and the construction of a naval base in Brazil”. There is also a second investigation, launched in June 2023, which is said to focus on possible “corruption, criminal conspiracy and money laundering in connection with the sale of military and civilian equipment abroad”. Although the submarines themselves were built by the then DCNS (the successor to DCN, now Naval Group), subsystems were supplied by Thales and Thales has been a shareholder since 2007.
In 1989, Fernando Collor de Mello was president of Brazil. He was sentenced to 8 years and 10 months in prison for accepting bribes. He had received 6 million euros from a subsidiary of Petrobras. Fernando was the first president to be elected in free elections after years of military dictatorship. After three years, he had to resign due to serious allegations of corruption. He remained active as a senator, until he lost his seat in the elections. Michel Temer (75) of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), accused of corruption, was the provisional leader of Brazil until the elections in 2018.
International commodity traders Trafigura, Vitol and Glencore are being prosecuted for bribing Petrobras. The three companies paid bribes to Petrobras executives in exchange for orders. According to the authorities, more than 15 million dollars in bribes were paid between 2011 and 2014 for more than 160 transactions in the purchase and sale of oil products. Eleven people have been arrested by the Brazilian federal police and search warrants have been issued. Executives used bribes to bribe top politicians and political parties, among others. Trafigura is suspected of bribery in Angola and Brazil. A director of the company is being prosecuted because he gave permission for this. Swiss public prosecutors accuse Trafigura and a high-ranking director of the company of the bribery affair. In response to the Swiss suspicions, the parent company of Trafigura, registered in the Netherlands, itself announced the American investigation into bribery in Brazil. The company has set aside 127 million dollars for this. Trafigura and Trafugura Beheer were previously charged by Brazilian federal prosecutors in 2020 over 31 oil sales and disposal transactions between May 2012 and October 2013. Brazilian prosecutors are asking the judge to freeze 1 billion reais (about 157 million euros) in Trafigura’s assets while the case is pending. Prosecutors say the irregularities involved the sale of about 7 billion barrels of oil. Trafigura allegedly won contracts by paying about 6.9 million reais (about 1.1 million euros) in bribes to Petrobras employees. Prosecutors say Trafigura made nearly 200 million reais in profits from these practices, while Petrobras made losses, the company admitted in March 2024 in federal court in Miami.
Bolsonaro appointed 71-year-old General Joaquim Silva e Luna as the new president of Petrobras on February 22, 2021, replacing Roberto Castello Branco, who had been in office since 2018. Branco was a staunch defender of a liberal line and of the non-intervention of the state in economic affairs. General Silva e Luna, 71, was Minister of Defense in the government of Michel Temer and Chief of Staff of the Brazilian Army. The reason would be that fuel prices were rising too drastically and unions threatened to strike if measures were not taken.
Former Petrobras manager Pedro Barusco received $10,000 in monthly bribes from SBM Offshore for four years in exchange for inside company information, according to SBM’s Brazilian agent Julio Faerman. Barusco settled with the authorities and testified in exchange for a reduced sentence against his former colleagues, who allegedly received a total of about $40 million. Barusco admitted that the bribes were deposited in a Swiss bank account. An employee of the Swiss bank occasionally visited Brazil to arrange the transfer of money to Switzerland. Pedro Barusco received a total of about $22 million from SBM Offshore. Barusco also admitted that the secretary of Rousseff’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) received between $150 and $200 million from 2003 to 2012 for a total of 90 contracts.
Barusco also confessed that Rolls Royce bribed Petrobras employees. Despite his cooperation, Barusco was sentenced to nine years in prison. Rolls Royce is also being investigated by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office for bribery in China and Indonesia. The authorities in Rio de Janeiro have agreed to a deal that the Public Prosecutor’s Office previously made with Julio Faerman, the then representative of SBM Offshore. In exchange for cooperation, he received a reduced sentence. SBM still had to repay Petrobras 1.7 billion dollars for lost revenue. Júlio Faerman paid back 48 million euros to the Brazilian State and also received a reduced sentence. A former sales and marketing manager at the American branch of SBM confessed that years ago, together with two high-ranking colleagues, he bribed people from the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras to secure contracts. Petrobras is paying more than 853 million dollars in a settlement regarding the major bribery and corruption affair at the company. Most of the money goes to the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office and the rest to US authorities.
SBM
SBM also settled in August 2018 for an amount of 48 million dollars. SBM must pay the Brazilian authorities approximately 360 million dollars over a period of fifteen years. A Brazilian court ruled at the request of the Federal Ministry of Public Prosecution that Petrobras must also withhold 892.7 million dollars from future payments to SBM. That money is intended for the financial settlement of the corruption case. At the end of July, SBM also reached another settlement of approximately 299 million dollars with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras and the Brazilian government. This corruption case was already ongoing and was not part of the previous settlement. SBM Offshore also settled with the Public Prosecution Service in the Netherlands for 192 million euros and in the US for 238 million dollars, thereby also avoiding prosecution there. CEO Anthony Tony Mace, who left SBM in 2011, and director Robert Zubiate were sentenced to three years in prison and a $150,000 fine for bribing state-owned companies and politicians. In addition to Petrobras, they also paid bribes to the Angolan state oil company Sociedade Nacional de Combustíveis de Angola, EP Sonangol and the state oil company of Equatorial Guinea, Petroléos de Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol). Tony Mace was betrayed by Zubiata, who made a full confession. The Public Prosecution Service is also prosecuting other executives, including three former employees of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc. For paying bribes, among other things, for the construction of a gas pipeline from Kazakhstan to China. Former SBM employee Jonathan Taylor stated in 2005 that his employer had paid 185 million euros in bribes to intermediaries in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Malaysia, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Italy between 2005 and 2011. The name of Gabriel Obiang, the second son of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, was also mentioned. Obiang is said to have received more than 7 million dollars from SBM. SBM CEO Tony Mace is said to have been aware of the payments and resigned in 2011. SBM dismissed the whistleblowing of former employee Taylor as extortion because the former employee is said to have demanded 3 million euros from SBM for his silence. SBM decided to prosecute Taylor for defamation. Taylor responded by requesting the release of a letter from CEO Chabas to Petrobras CEO Gracas Foster, claiming that it supports his allegation and that information about the bribery was withheld from investors by SBM and its agents in Brazil. Taylor also demanded correspondence between SBM’s lawyers, to prove that shareholders were informed too late about the scale and extent of the corruption and bribery. Shocked by Taylor’s demands and the recent developments, SBM decided to drop the charges against Taylor in early September 2016. In Monaco,where SBM Offshore previously had its headquarters, a criminal case against Taylor has been ongoing since 2014. SBM Offshore accused the Briton of trying to extort the company by threatening to make claims that would damage the name of the listed company. Jonathan Taylor was arrested in Croatia at the end of July 2020. after an international arrest warrant that Monaco had issued against him. The federal public prosecutor in Rio has reached a settlement for CEO Bruno Chabas and legal director Sietze Hepkema for 120 thousand dollars for the alleged concealment of the years of corruption. The contracts for which some 139 million in bribes were paid amounted to a total of more than 27 billion dollars. Hepkema was head of governance and compliance at SBM. Former SBM directors Robert Subiate, Didier Keller and Tony Mace were also to be prosecuted, but a new settlement was agreed in early April with immunity from further prosecution. Part of the settlement for the bribes between 1996 and 2012 was the payment of 162.8 million dollars to Petrobras and the Brazilian authorities. Of this, 149.2 million dollars would go to Petrobras. The settlement also allowed SBM Offshore to do business with Petrobras again. In the deal, SBM also waived 95% of the 112 million dollars in performance bonuses that could be achieved with two production and storage vessels (FPSOs) in the period up to and including 2030 in Brazil. The settlement is an agreement between five parties. Three public parties also participated. However, the settlement was reversed by Brazilian authorities at the end of August, but was still approved by the Brazilian audit office TCU at the beginning of December 2017. More than half of SBM’s turnover is generated in Brazil. The interests are still increasing with five Brazilian FPSOs that SBM acquired in 2019. The company can now count on an operating result (EBITDA) of more than 900 million dollars and a forecast for the directional turnover of approximately 2.3 billion. In order to also reduce the cost base, a total of 600 jobs will be lost. At the end of last year, almost 4,500 people worked for the group. According to the court, SBM Offshore has unlawfully portrayed a former employee who brought a corruption scandal to light in various media as an extortionist. Former corporate lawyer Jonathan Taylor of SBM had filed a lawsuit against his former employer about this. Taylor believes that he should be seen as a whistleblower and is demanding financial compensation for the damage to his reputation that he suffered after SBM Offshore was guilty of bribing government officials via intermediaries in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea between 2007 and 2011. In the previous decade, the company, originally from Schiedam, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fines in Brazil, the United States and the Netherlands because of the corruption.The case came to light after Taylor shared information about the bribes via Wikipedia and business magazine Quote wrote about it. SBM Offshore has unlawfully portrayed a former employee who exposed a corruption scandal as an extortionist in various media. The court in Amsterdam reached this conclusion in a lawsuit that former corporate lawyer Jonathan Taylor of SBM had filed against his former employer. Taylor believes that he should be seen as a whistleblower and is demanding financial compensation for the damage to his reputation that he suffered. SBM Offshore sells floating platforms for pumping and storing oil, and was guilty of bribing government officials via intermediaries in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea between 2007 and 2011. In the previous decade, the company, originally from Schiedam, paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fines in Brazil, the United States and the Netherlands because of the corruption. The case came to light after Taylor shared information about the bribes via Wikipedia and business magazine Quote wrote about it.
Philips
Also a whistleblower Jose Masiero Filho, who worked at Dixtal (a subsidiary of Philips), noticed in 2010 bribery practices in three government tenders for products from Philips and Dixtal via an intermediary who had used bribes to secure government contracts. Masiero was ordered by a sales manager to increase the invoices and not to invoice the low price that the supplier had to pay, but the 67 percent higher price for the ministry. Masiero was later fired after he raised the issue by email with his then boss of Philips Healthcare, Steve Rusckowski, among other things. It was not until 2018 that the Brazilian justice department raided Philips. Whistleblower Jose Masiero Filho reported that no tender was followed, that excessive prices were passed on and that business was done with an obscure supplier called Rizzi Comercio and with intermediary Moses Trading American, who was located at a vague address on a golf course in the US. An unknown supplier with offices in a run-down building in a slum in Sao Paulo, but which did win a mega-order from the government for the delivery of hundreds of defibrillators and heart monitors to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, worth tens of millions of euros. Former local director Daurio Speranzini from Philips in Rio de Janeiro was arrested, as was sales manager Fredrik Knudsen, who is still employed by Philips. Daurio Speranzini Jr. was CEO of Philips Brazil from 2004 to 2010 and then became CEO of the Latin American division of the equally suspected competitor General Electric (GE). According to prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro, Speranzini has been guilty of corruption, price fixing and other criminal activities, together with another former director of Philips’ Brazilian sales division. General Electric made it clear in a press release that the arrest of its local CEO has nothing to do with GE’s activities, but with those of Philips. Other suspected companies include Philips, Siemens, Johnson & Johnson, GE and Stryker.
Operation “Zelotes”
On October 7, 2018, there were presidential elections in Brazil. The intended left-wing presidential candidate Lula da Silva, who was in prison for corruption, was not allowed to participate by the Electoral Court of Brazil. Lula, who was president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011, was sentenced by the federal judge to 9.5 years in prison. Lula was accused of corruption in a total of five different criminal cases. He was initially allowed to await the hearing of the case on appeal and in freedom, but it was subsequently decided that he should go to prison after all. On January 24, 2018, he lost his appeal and was definitively found guilty of corruption and money laundering. Three judges of the federal court unanimously confirmed his previous conviction. They increased the prison sentence from 9.5 years to 12 years and one month. A Brazilian federal judge, Rogério Favreto, then ordered that Lula da Silva should be released again. The Supreme Court recently ruled that convicts may only be imprisoned after all avenues of appeal have been exhausted. However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the special anti-corruption judge Sérgio Moro initially blocked this. On March 15, 2017, Lula testified for the first time at the Supreme Court and denied all charges. In 2018, he was sentenced to more than twelve years in prison in Curitiba, but after serving eighteen months, he was released in 2019. The Supreme Court annulled the sentences and Lula regained his political rights, allowing him to participate in the 2022 elections. The judge stated that the court in the city of Curitiba, which convicted Lula, did not have jurisdiction to rule on, among other things, a corruption scale. He should be tried by a court in the capital Brasília. The Supreme Court confirmed this. The case concerned the “free” lease and renovation of an apartment on Astúrias beach, in Guarujá on the coast of São Paulo. Lula’s wife Marisa Letícia had a lease option on the apartment, which belongs to the construction company OAS. Marisa obtained the lease option in 2005 through the cooperative Bancoop, the previous owner of the building. In 2014, the apartment was completely renovated and furnished by OAS. In November 2015, the Lula family attempted to return the property after reports in the press that former Bancoop president and ex-PT treasurer João Vaccari Neto was sentenced to prison for his role alongside other OAS executives. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (73) was sentenced on February 6, 2019 by Judge Gabriela Hardt of the Federal Court in Curitiba to a prison term of 12 years and 11 months for corruption and laundering bribes from Odebrecht and OAS. Da Silva received a free renovation of a farm in the city of Atibaia in exchange for orders from Petrobras.Lula was imprisoned for a year and seven months in a special cell on the fourth floor of that police station. If he had lost his appeals, he would still have to serve his sentence. In addition, he was prosecuted again for the affair with Odebrecht. The Brazilian Supreme Court eventually shortened the prison sentence considerably. Lula saw his prison stay reduced from 12 years and one month to 8 years and 10 months. This made him eligible for a semi-open prison regime or house arrest.
Vaccari Neto was found guilty and sentenced to more than 15 years in prison. Judge Sergio Moro authorized searches of the OAS and Bancoop in order to investigate the involvement of Lula’s family. Prosecutor Cassio Conserino had sufficient evidence of the money laundering activities of the Lula family. The judge also ordered the arrest and provisional detention of publicist Nelci Warken, who acted on behalf of the family. Marisa Letícia recently died at the age of 66 in the Sirio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo from a brain hemorrhage. They were married in 1974. Lula’s first wife died after a caesarean section in which the baby also died. Marisa’s first husband was murdered in a robbery while she was six months pregnant. Lula recognized her son as his own, in addition to their three sons and Lula’s daughter from a previous relationship. Marisa spoke at party meetings and led a protest march in 1980 to call for Lula’s release when he was imprisoned as a strike leader by the then military regime. One of the companies in the investigation, “Marcondes e Mautoni”, is said to have paid Lula’s son Luis Claudio. The head of the federal police investigation team, Marlon Cajado, announced that there could be indications that Lula himself, along with other leaders in the then Casa Civil (the presidential ministry of general affairs), had played a much more active role in the purchase of emergency decrees.
Mauro Marcondes, who was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison, was active as an intermediary for car manufacturers such as Mitsubishi, Fiat and Hyundai and paid, among other things, 2.5 million dollars to Lula’s son for help in obtaining tax benefits. Lula asked a friend to do everything possible to protect Marcondes in order to keep his son out of harm’s way.
Dylma Rousseff asked Lula da Silva to join her government as minister and chief of staff, making prosecution difficult. For that reason, a federal judge blocked the appointment and Rousseff also came under suspicion of complicity. Rousseff is a member of the Brazilian Workers’ Party. Lula is alleged to have tried to bribe former Petrobras CEO Nestor Cervero, who is currently in prison, to remain silent. The police searched his home in São Bernardo, the offices of his foundation and also the homes of his family and business partners. Some 200 police officers searched a total of 33 buildings and questioned 11 people involved in three states. Wiretapped incriminating telephone conversations between Lula and Dylma were previously declared inadmissible as evidence because they were obtained and investigated unlawfully.
Lula’s staffer Jose Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva was arrested on September 1, 2015 for allegedly being the mastermind of the Petrobras corruption and money laundering scandals. He was Lula’s (2003 to 2005) former staffer and co-founder of PT. Prior to his arrest, he had been under house arrest for vote-buying and his involvement in the Mensalão scandal. Together with his brother, he owned JD Consulting, which was used to siphon off money. Dirceau was stripped of his political rights as a Brazilian politician in 2012 by the House of Representatives and was found guilty in two separate trials before the Brazilian Supreme Court of Justice of active corruption, vote-buying and membership of a criminal organization, for which he was sentenced to seven years in a semi-open regime (house arrest) and a fine of 971 thousand dollars. In addition to Dirceu and his brother, 13 others were tried in the same case, including the former treasurer of the Workers’ Party PT, John Vaccari Neto and former Petrobras director Renato Duque. Dirceau was sentenced again on May 18, 2016 to 23 years and three months in prison in a closed regime, the most severe sentence so far. The PT faction received a total of 15 million dollars in goods, real estate and money in bank accounts and must repay Petrobras 46 million dollars. The bribes came from, among others, Gerson Almada, the owner of the company Engevix and the Pascowitch brothers. (whistleblower) Another lobbyist and informant Fernando Moura was sentenced to 16 years and two months for corruption and money laundering of 60 million dollars.
When Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Lula was elected president, he appointed Dilma Rousseff minister of mines and energy. Rousseff (PMDB) resigned in 2005 to become chief of staff of his cabinet. She remained in this position until 2010 to focus fully on the Brazilian presidential elections. In these elections, she had the full support of the outgoing Lula da Silva, who was not allowed to run for re-election after two terms in office. Rousseff succeeded him as president of Brazil on 1 January 2011. Dilma Rousseff was chairman of Petrobras until 2010 and became the first female president of Brazil, partly thanks to the expensive marketing campaign.
After 5 years, a parliamentary committee recommended that impeachment proceedings be initiated against Dilma Rousseff because she allegedly committed fraud with the budget in the run-up to the elections. The result of the vote on this was 38 to 27, after which the 81 members of the Senate voted. The Supreme Court then decided that the vote on the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff could continue. The procedure was initiated by Eduardo Cunha, who had recently been suspended by the Supreme Court for obstructing the corruption investigation. Rousseff received support from neighboring countries Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. The Senate and the Supreme Court voted with a large majority on the impeachment procedure in early August with 59 votes in favor and 21 against approval of the impeachment procedure. Dilma Rousseff (68) defended herself in vain against this in the Senate. Of the 81 senators, 61 voted in favor of impeachment and 20 against, leaving Interim President Michel Temer as her successor until December 2018. The Senate also voted on a proposal to ban Rousseff from holding public office for the next eight years, but it failed. Subsequently, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann and her husband, both members of Dilma Rousseff’s government, were also formally indicted by the Supreme Court on September 27, 2016. They allegedly received $309,000 illegally for the 2010 election campaign.
Acarajé (the 23rd phase of the Lava Jato research)
The Federal Court heard four Petrobras employees as witnesses for the prosecution on June 13, 2016 in Curitiba. The witnesses are Paulo Rangel, Alexis Torres Rollim Minto, Paula Torres Rollim Minto and Jailton Guedes de Souza. The employees testified against seven suspects including João Santana and his wife, Monica Moura, former PT treasurer João Vaccari Neto and former Petrobras director Renato Duque. All are imprisoned in Paraná. João Cerqueira de Santana Filho has received bribes from Odebrecht and Zwi Skórnicki (agent of Keppel Corporation and Keppel Fels). The kickback payments came to light following confessions by Odebrecht’s secretary Maria Lucia Tavares who, in exchange for a reduced sentence, disclosed parallel accounting on spreadsheets showing bribe payments to individuals linked to various local, state and federal works, such as Goiania Airport, the Arena Corinthians and Metro West Zone in Rio de Janeiro.
Odebrecht (35th phase of the Lava Jato investigation)
Not only at Petrobras but also at Odebrecht, paying bribes to politicians was a daily occurrence. Besides being a construction company, Odebrecht is also active in engineering, agriculture and the petrochemical industry. The multinational was founded in 1944 in Bahia by Norberto Odebrecht and worked with 128,000 employees on many projects in Brazil. Since the arrest of Marcelo Odebrecht and the discovery of the large-scale corruption, the number of employees has been reduced to 75,000. After the arrest of Marcelo Odebrecht and the interrogation of some 780 managers, the names of 107 politicians to whom the bribes were paid were released in exchange for reduced sentences. The court has published a list of names. Among others, the chief of staff of the president, the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Trade, four former presidents and the man who was mayor of Rio de Janeiro during the Olympic Games are mentioned. The other politicians come from all kinds of political ranks. Prosecutor Janot’s list also includes the names of former presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, former presidential candidates José Serra and Aecio Neves, the presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, members of parliament, but also five ministers from the cabinet of Michel Temer, who himself is not yet on the long list of 83 charges, but who has been included in the investigation. Former president Temer stated that he will fire cabinet members who are charged. However, Odebrecht CEO Melo Filho also mentioned Temer’s name 43 times in his confessions. Temer is said to have asked for a financial donation during a dinner with Marcelo Odebrecht, according to a leaked interrogation of Odebrecht. The decision to make all the evidence public lies with (Supreme Court) judge Edson Fachin, who took over the case after the sudden death of his predecessor Teori Zavascki in a plane crash in January 2017. The terms of the $184 million fine that Odebrecht must pay have now been ratified. The ratified settlement also states that Odebrecht must provide a list of names of individuals who accepted the bribes.
Odebrecht was already searched on March 22, 2015 and Marcelo Odebrecht, the 47-year-old CEO, was arrested and sentenced to 19 years and four months in prison for corruption, money laundering and conspiracy. Recently, Marcelo Odebrecht was again prosecuted due to new facts, at the same time as the prosecution of the “marketing couple” Monica Regina Cunha Moura and João Cerqueira de Santana Filho. Accusations were also made against Dylma Rousseff. Rousseff is said to have personally urged Odebrecht to pay bribes to the PT treasurer. Odebrecht made a deal with the justice department and admitted that his company paid 10 million reais (2.8 million euros) to Temer’s PDMB party in May 2014, for illegal financing of the parliamentary election campaign. Temer, then vice president, was personally present at the meeting where the deal was made.
Brazil’s Attorney General Rodrigo Janot asked the Supreme Court in mid-March 2017 to open 83 new investigations after coerced testimonies from 77 Odebrecht executives. In addition to the 83 files at the Supreme Court, 211 files were forwarded to other legal bodies. Odebrecht paid 1 to 3 percent commission per contract, which was passed on to elected politicians. Marcelo Odebrecht has admitted that his company paid 10 million reais (2.8 million euros) in May 2014 to the PDMB party of Temer, who was then vice president and personally present at the meeting where the deal was made. Odebrecht has admitted that former President Lula was paid up to 8 million euros in order to ensure that he would continue to exert influence after his presidency. Rousseff, Neves and Serra are also said to have received illegal donations for election campaigns.
In January 2002, PT member and also mayor of Santo André Celso Daniel was shot dead after he tried to expose the corruption. Owner-shareholder Ronan Maria Pinto of Diário do Grande ABC was bribed to stop publications about the connection between the corruption and the murder. Daniel Sérgio Gomes da Silva, an assistant of Mayor Celso, councilman Klinger Souza and Ronan Maria Pinto were also sentenced to 10 years in the case.
Radio presenter Gleydson Carvalho, who denounced the behavior of local police officers and politicians, was shot dead during a broadcast in August. Seven Brazilian journalists have been murdered so far in 2015 and 2016. The latest was investigative journalist João Miranda do Carmo, who was shot dead outside his home in Santo Antônio do Descoberto after receiving numerous threats. In 2014, his car was set on fire. Do Carmo (54) has been charged with defamation several times and is said to have planned to run in upcoming municipal elections.
Around the 2016 Summer Olympics, the police used excessive force in the fight against crime. Civilians were also victims of this on a large scale. Peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed and protesters were arbitrarily arrested. There were also concerns about torture and the rights of indigenous peoples and LGBT people (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender).
According to journalist Pepe Escobar, the revelations are a set-up by Western governments to stage a coup against the increasingly powerful Petrobras and the BRICS alliance and to prevent Lula and the PT from participating in elections. Edward Snowden’s revelations had already shown that the NSA was tapping into Petrobras’ communications and that the British intelligence service GCHQ was also doing so. Rousseff cancelled a planned state visit to the US and scrapped a number of major trade agreements, including the purchase of military equipment. Brazil was subsequently dealt a considerable blow with the sudden drop in oil prices and the undermining of the government.
Brazilian billionaire and CEO of Latin America’s largest investment bank, Grupo BTG Pactual Andre Esteves, and Senator Delcidio do Amaral, leader of the PT, were both arrested in Rio de Janeiro in late November for obstructing the investigation and attempting to bribe former Petrobras CEO Nestor Cervero, who is currently in prison.
The two wanted to pay Cervero’s son $1 million in hush money and ensure his temporary release, after which Amaral would help him flee to Spain via Paraguay. They also offered a monthly allowance of $13,000 for his family who remained behind. Cervero’s son agreed but recorded the conversation on his mobile phone to be on the safe side. When the deal fell through, he handed over the recorded conversation of an hour and a half to the police. The arrest sent shock waves through the Brazilian capital market and a sharp drop in the share price of BTG Pactual and other stocks in this sector. Delcidio is said to have made incriminating statements about Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Rousseff in exchange for a reduced sentence. Lula was arrested on March 4 for questioning about his possible involvement in this hush money case.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for accepting bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht . The 78-year-old Toledo was president of Peru from 2001 to 2006. During his presidency, he is said to have received $35 million from the construction company in exchange for a major contract. In exchange for the bribes, Odebrecht was commissioned to build a road connecting southern Peru with Brazil. Odebrecht, now called Nonovor, admitted in 2016 to having bribed officials in several countries. Dutch companies were also suspected of involvement in the major corruption case. The former president lived in the United States for many years. There, he was arrested in 2019 at the request of Peru, after which he was placed under house arrest. Toledo was extradited to Peru last year. He has denied the accusations of money laundering. Toledo is not the only former president in prison. A special prison has been built on the outskirts of Lima for former presidents. Former president Pedro Castillo is also in prison after he tried to dissolve parliament just before impeachment proceedings against him. This led to his impeachment and arrest. In September 2024, former president Alberto Fujimori died, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his involvement in the murder of 25 Peruvians in the 1990s. He was released early last year because he had health problems. Another former president, Peru’s Alan Garciá, was also suspected of accepting bribes from Odebrecht. Garciá shot himself in the head during his arrest and died from his injuries. Current president Dina Doluarte is also accused of accepting bribes. Peru’s Public Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against her in May of this year.
PTB
Brazilian Police arrested former Senator Gim Argello and former President and current Senator Fernando Collor de Mello of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) for accepting $1.5 million in bribes from construction companies UTC Engenharia and OAS in an attempt to avoid prosecution in the corruption case. Argello was vice president of a congressional commission charged with the Petrobras corruption case. The bribes were paid to Argello and his two aides Paulo Cesar Ramos Purple and Valerius Neves Campos as donations to the political party.
Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT)
Former (PT) Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo Silva and Carlos Gabas, the former (PT) Minister of Social Affairs and Welfare in the government of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, were arrested on June 23, 2016 following accusations by (PT) whistleblower Alexandre Romano, the “Chambinho”, former PT councillor in Americana in São Paulo. Journalist Leonardo Attuch, editor of the PT website was also taken in for questioning.
João Cerqueira de Santana Filho was also prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison for corruption and money laundering, and PT treasurer João Vaccari Neto was sentenced to nine years. Renado De Souza Duque, the former Petrobras project manager, was sentenced to 20 years and eight months. Lula’s former Minister of Mines and Energy (2008) Edison Lobão is suspected of accepting $50 million from Petrobras.
PP
The Partido Progressista (Progressive Party) is a conservative political party, founded in 1995 as a merger of two small parties. The PP entered into a coalition with the Democrats and the Brazilian Social Democratic Party to support Fernando Henrique Cardoso as president. Since 2003, it has supported the government of the Workers’ Party, first under President Lula da Silva and later under President Dilma Rousseff. In the Rousseff cabinet, the PP provided one minister.
The Supreme Court opened an investigation against Romero Jucá in April 2016. According to Paulo Roberto Costa, former director of Petrobras, he received political support in exchange for bribes from UTC Engineering. Jucá became president of the PMDB in April but was soon embarrassed by leaked tapes showing him discussing the corruption investigations and the removal of Dylma Rousseff with Sergio Machado, the director of the state-owned company Transpetro who is the subject of the investigation in the corruption case. On the various audio tapes with other leaders of the PMDB, the president of the Senate Renan Calheiros (AL) and former senator and former president José Sarneyis, it can be heard that Jucá wants the removal of Rousseff to stop the “bleeding” and that a political pact is needed to put an end to this. On the tapes he also talks about the generals and military leaders who would agree and give guarantees for this. After the tapes were released, Juca resigned. Minister Fabiano Silveira also resigned under great pressure on May 30, 2016 after incriminating recordings of conversations between him and Renan Calheiros and Sergio Machado (president of Transpetro) were leaked. In the conversation secretly recorded by Machado, Silveira advises Calheiros on how best to defend himself in the corruption scandal at Petrobras. As “Transparency Minister”, Silveira was responsible for the fight against corruption in Brazil. Silveira was not yet a minister when the conversations took place, but worked at the National Council of Justice.
The Public Prosecutor and Attorney General Rodrigo Janot, appointed by Rousseff in 2013, is not only investigating Lula da Silva, but also PMDB members Renan Calheiros, Romero Juca, Jader Barbalho, Edison Lobão and Valdir Raupp.
Construction company OAS SA is suspected of laundering the bribes with apartments in the Solaris complex in Guaruja. The last week of January 2016, raids and searches were carried out there. The apartments were held in the name of front companies such as Murray Holdings LLC, which is registered by the Panama-based Mossack Group. Several politicians were clients of the Mossack Group, which is active in 40 countries. Through the Panamanian construction, managed by Robalinho de Barros, millions in commission for PetroBras oil were siphoned off via Switzerland. Robalinho was Minister of Foreign Trade under the 37th President of Brazil Itamar Franco and has ties to the PMDB. The companies WTorre, Andrade Gutierrez SA and Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA are also under investigation.
Sergio Cunha Mendes, former vice president of engineering company Mendes Junior was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months in prison for corruption, money laundering, fraud and bribery of Petrobras. Seven others were sentenced at the same time. Consultant and whistleblower Julio Camargo was given a community service order and reporting obligation instead of 14 years as a reduced sentence. He testified twice under oath that Eduardo Cunha of the PMDB had asked him for the money. Lobbyist Fernando Soares was sentenced to more than 16 years for channeling the bribes to PMDB.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Auditores Independentes, the Brazilian branch of Deloitte, was fined $8 million by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for improper auditing and attempts to cover up violations of professional standards. Twelve former Deloitte partners and others involved were also penalized. A former responsible partner is accused of making manifestly improper statements. Deloitte Brazil has admitted the facts and also admitted to not cooperating with the PCAOB investigation. The improper statements relate to the 2010 financial statements of a Brazilian airline. When the PCAOB investigated this, Deloitte provided misleading documents and several partners made false statements under oath in order to frustrate the investigation.
Moller-Maersk
The Danish Moller-Maersk has been under investigation since July 2014 and had to report to the Brazilian authorities again a year later about transactions that had been made. Maersk stated that it was not unusual to use brokers who receive 1.25 percent commission on concluded contracts. Brazilian authorities want to close the corruption affair as soon as possible and are prepared to settle with ten companies involved. The new head of the Brazilian investigation, Carlos Higino, wanted to solve the delay that had occurred so that companies that admitted guilt and bought off the case can work with Petrobras again.
All the commotion surrounding the corruption scandals came at the same time as the country’s economic situation declined, while Brazil had actually had an emerging economy over the last ten years
Sete Brazil
Sete Brasil filed for bankruptcy protection on April 29, 2016. Sete Brasil was founded eight years ago by Petrobras (5%) together with pension funds Previ, Funcef and Petros, banks Grupo BTG Pactual SA and Banco Bradesco SA and several investment companies to build the world’s largest fleet of (deepwater) drillships. The bankruptcy was catastrophic for the pension funds and investors, but also for dozens of shipbuilders, manufacturers, subcontractors and the government, which was the largest creditor. More than 800,000 local shipbuilding jobs and employees’ pensions were lost. The project, supported by the Brazilian government, began to deteriorate in 2014 due to corruption scandals. The original delivery of 29 drillships had already been scaled back to 15 ships. Petrobras had no money and therefore no longer wanted the drillships and had to sell many of the assets and converted debt to state banks into shares in order to be able to handle the immense mountain of debt. This reversed the previous privatization of Petrobras. The total damage was about 11.3 billion dollars. The world’s largest ship (drill) builders Sembcorp Marine Ltd and Keppel Corporation in Singapore were dragged into the trap. Sembcorp, the largest supplier of Sete Brasil, has a negative cash flow of 73 million dollars. Keppel Corp and Sembcorp Marine are doubly hit because they are also suspected of paying bribes of 9.5 million and 13 million dollars respectively to Petrobras to win these contracts, after incriminating statements by Pedro Jose Barusco Filho of Petrobras. In addition to prosecuting those investigated by Lava-Jato for carrying out the largest corruption scheme ever in the country, Sete Brasil is fighting in court to receive 10 million dollars that was rescued by the operation from the hands of corrupt people who looted Petrobras. The company, set up to supply drilling platforms to the oil company, claims that the dirty money paid as bribes for the company’s drilling contracts should not be allowed to return to the state-owned company, which it claims was the target of the coup, Sete Brasil itself, which eventually found itself in dire financial straits as a result of the theft of the PT from Petrobras
IHC
After the corruption scandal at SBM, shipbuilder IHC in the Netherlands and Brazil is also being investigated for possible involvement in the payment of bribes. KPMG is said to have already reported six unusual transactions to the FIU in 2013 and 2014, after which the FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service started an investigation. In 2013, IHC acquired the contract for the construction of six pipe-laying vessels for approximately 1.5 billion euros, via a corrupt intermediary. In Brazil, the judiciary conducted house searches and seized assets. The matter is unpleasant for the Dutch state. At the end of April, it invested 325 million euros in the rescue of IHC when it had overestimated the construction of several ships. The company employs approximately 3,000 people. The Dutch state is now the largest shareholder. In mid-2013, the company received the order for the shipyards in Krimpen aan den IJssel and Kinderdijk. Deliveries took place in 2015 and 2016. The ships are used for the development of oil fields that lie at a depth of more than 2500 meters. IHC Holland, now IHC Merwede, is the shipbuilder from which SBM split off in 2005.
Pension fund ABP invested 124 million euros in Petrobras and pension fund PGGM invested around 61.5 million euros. 43% of the value eventually went up in smoke.
Petrobras’ market value has been halved by the corruption scandal and the company now has the largest debt of any oil company in the world. Investors and investors including the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the North Carolina Department of Finance, the Hawaii State Pension Fund, the States of Rhode Island and Ohio are seeking damages and were given the opportunity to do so on September 19 in a lawsuit in which law firm Jeremy Lieberman of Pomerantz is demanding tens of billions from Petrobras for deception on behalf of the American pension funds and investors with a class action. The defendants are Maria das Graças Silva Foster and José Sérgio Gabrielli de Azevedo, former director Theodore Marshall Helms, Almir Guilherme Barbassa, Paulo Roberto Costa, José Carlos Cosenza, Renato de Souza Duque, Guilherme de Oliveira Estrella, Jose Miranda Formigli Filho, Silvio Sinedino Pinheiro, Daniel Lima de Oliveira, José Raimundo Brandão Pereira, Servio Tulio da Rosa Tinoco, Paulo José Alves, Gustavo Tardin Barbosa, Alexandre Quintão Fernandes, Marcos Antonio Zacarias and Cornelis Franciscus Jozef Looman from Petrobras International Braspetro BV Netherlands.
Newton Ishii, an agent of the Federal Police, was the national symbol of the fight against corruption, but he himself was also corrupt and had to go to prison. Ishii was sentenced to four years and two months in prison for smuggling in 2003. He and his colleagues had been passing smuggled goods from Paraguay. The case against Ishii and his colleagues had been going on for years, behind closed doors.
At meat processors JBS (Friboi) and BRF fraud was found, with inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture being paid bribes during checks. Spoiled meat was repackaged and ended up on the Brazilian market or was sent to Europe and Russia. Carcinogenic substances were also used to prevent inspectors or traders from noticing that the meat was spoiled. Raids were carried out at forty slaughterhouses and meat processing companies and 300 arrests were made. Head of investigation Maurício Moscardi Grillo of the Federal Police reports that spoiled meat was exported via an Italian port and Rotterdam to, among others, World’s Finest Meat in Zoeterwoude. At the same time, swine fever was found to be prevalent. The disease was already detected in August at a pig farm in the Ceará region.
Key figures
Roberto Jefferson
Roberto Jefferson, an ally of Bolsonaro, injured two police officers who came to arrest him on the orders of the Supreme Court. In protest of his arrest, he threw a grenade at the officers and fired at them for hours. The officers were hit by shrapnel. Eventually, the former congressman surrendered. Police announced on Sunday that Jefferson is now also charged with attempted murder. Bolsonaro tried to distance himself from Jefferson in a video on social media shortly after the arrest. Jefferson was arrested for insulting a judge over a ruling on the allocation of political airtime on television. In that ruling, the judge transferred some of Bolsonaro’s airtime to his challenger: the leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The reason was that Bolsonaro had violated the rules on political advertising. Jefferson was also already on trial for alleged involvement in the production and dissemination of fake news.
Marcelo Crivella
Crivella was a former pastor and the nephew of the founder of a well-known evangelical church community. He also previously served as the Minister of Fisheries for Dilma RousseffCrivella. Crivella, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, was taken into custody nine days before the end of his term on December 22, 2020 on suspicion of corruption and then released with an ankle monitor pending trial. Crivella is said to have led the criminal organization within the mayor’s office since 2017. Crivella was interrogated for two hours and charged along with 25 others, including Rafael Alves, Mauro Macedo, Eduardo Lopes (Former Senator) and Fernando Moraes (Retired Police Chief). Crivella was supported in his election by Jair Bolsonaro, but lost heavily. He will be succeeded by Eduardo Paes, who was also mayor of the city from 2009 to 2017. The trial was a result of Operation Hades. In September, Crivella had already been the subject of searches and seizures at his home and office in the town hall.
Sergio Moro
Brazil’s Justice Minister Sérgio Moro has resigned after he disagreed with Bolsonaro’s decision to replace the head of the Federal Police and accused Bolsonaro of repeatedly trying to influence police investigations against his sons. Following Sérgio Moro’s comments, Attorney General Augusto Aras is investigating Bolsonaro’s alleged abuse of power, under the supervision of Supreme Court Justice Celso de Mello. An incriminating video has surfaced of the Council of Ministers meeting of April 22, 2020, in which Bolsonaro expressed his intention to fire the director of the Federal Police, saying: “I want a different chief in Rio. Otherwise I will fire the director and possibly the minister”. Lula da Silva was replaced in previous elections by Fernando Haddad. In total there were thirteen candidates. Marina Silva tried her luck as a presidential candidate for the third time with her Sustainability Network (Rede Sustentabilidade). Her vice-presidential candidate was Eduardo Jorge of the Green Party (Partido Verde). Journalist Greenwald published a series of articles detailing how Sérgio Moro played a dubious and biased role in the conviction of former President Lula da Silva. In the days since the publications, Glenn Greenwald and his husband, David Miranda, a congressman from the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party, have received death and violence threats that “contain substantial personal and private information. Until last year, Moro was the judge in the corruption investigation Operation Lava Jato (see below) and was rewarded by Bolsonaro with the post of Minister of Justice. Greenwald based his investigation on an anonymous source from whom he obtained thousands of hacked telegrams and audio files. These showed how Sergio Moro and the prosecutors conspired to get Lula da Silva convicted. Greenwald is threatened because of his publications and is now the subject of an investigation by the federal police. In Brazil, two journalists have already been shot dead within a month this year. Why Sérgio Moro then turned against Bolsonaro’s family is unclear.
Sergio Machado
José Sergio de Oliveira Machado, the head of Petrobras subsidiary Transpetro, testified that the engineering group Queiroz Galvao was used to launder campaign contributions. Machado has made incriminating statements about both of them. Machado stated that Temer had asked for donations (383,000 euros) for his PMDB party campaign in Sao Paulo in 2012. Senate President Renan Calheiros was also involved, according to him. In 2014, former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa also confessed to taking bribes and he already admitted then that a percentage of Transpetro contracts were channeled to Calheiros, with whom Machado met regularly. In exchange for his cooperation with the justice system, Machado was offered a deal. After paying back 23 million dollars, he got off with three years of house arrest with limited visitation rights.
Michel Temer (PMDB)
Michel Temer (75), a Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) accused of corruption, was provisionally in charge of the country until the 2018 elections. Temer received $1.4 million from OAS, an engineering firm that works for Petrobras, but according to him, this was simply a donation for campaigning. Temer’s seven-year-old son was registered as the owner of $550,000 worth of real estate. Temer’s assets doubled between 2006 and 2014. He was president of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) until 2011 and speaker of the House of Representatives twice. Temer was born in Tietê, in the state of São Paulo. He studied law and taught at the University of São Paulo. Temer temporarily took over power from Dilma Rousseff on May 12. The interim president himself, who is also suspected of being a terrorist, had to let a newly appointed minister resign for the fourth time in just over a month because of his involvement in large-scale corruption at Petróleo Brasileiro (Petrobras). On June 20, a regional court in São Paulo formally sentenced Temer to an eight-year ban from participating in new elections for violating the electoral law. Temer was also found guilty of illegally using his own resources to campaign. Temer has quickly implemented important changes to the Constitution that oblige governments to never let government spending exceed inflation for the next 20 years. This means heavy social cuts and major cuts to all government spending. He has also implemented privatizations that allow the oligarchy to buy government services at prices far below market value.
Minister Geddel
The sixth minister of Temer to resign. Temer’s interim government attempted to halt all ongoing corruption investigations with new laws and to prevent new investigations from being started. A striking detail is that judge Gilmar Mendes, who must decide Temer’s fate, is flying with him to the funeral of President Mario Soares in Portugal. Another chief justice was killed in a plane crash off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. The plane ended up in the sea. Rescue workers found his body among the wreckage of the plane, which crashed during a heavy rainstorm. According to the air force and civil aviation authorities, Paraty was the final destination.
Joesley Batista
The owner of meat multinational JBS, had a hidden microphone with him at the request of the federal police when he met with Temer. Batista and Temer discussed the bribery of Eduardo Cunha. Batista told Temer in the recorded conversation that he had been paying Cunha for his silence for some time and that he had already paid about one and a half million euros for this. “Keep doing that, okay?”, Temer is said to have said. Batista also asked Temer for help with “a problem”. Temer referred him to one of his closest advisors, Rodrigo Rocha, who was later filmed by the police when he received a suitcase with money from Batista. After the recordings became public, the stock market in São Paulo and the exchange rate of the Brazilian real fell sharply. The main index of the Bovespa plummeted by almost 9 percent. Petrobras saw 17 percent of its stock market value evaporate. The court sentenced Batista to thirty years in prison for bribery. Batista was found guilty of paying 15.5 million euros to then-governor Sergio Cabral of the state of Rio de Janeiro. In exchange for these bribes, Batista’s companies obtained contracts with the state. Cabral has been in prison since late 2016. Batista was the richest man in Brazil six years ago and one of the richest people in the world. In 2015, however, Batista acquired the nickname ‘billionaire in debt’, because he was said to already have a debt of 1 billion dollars.
Geddel Vieira Lima
At the end of November, Temer’s political ally resigned because he was suspected of having pressured his colleague and previously resigned Minister of Culture Marcelo Calero. Temer himself is said to have put pressure on Calero but only wanted to settle the conflict between Vieira Lima and Calero. Temer was going to fire Vieira Lima if he did not resign himself. Vieira Lima had interests in the construction of a luxury apartment complex and wanted his colleague Calero to reverse the halt to the construction of the complex on a historic site in the city of Salvador, some 1,600 kilometers from Rio. But a leaked testimony and tape recordings would reveal Temer’s involvement.
Andre Moura
Andre Moura, accused of attempted murder and also suspected of corruption, was appointed leader of the Lower House by Michel Temer on May 18, 2016. Romero Jucá was appointed by Temer as minister of planning and Henrique Eduardo Alves as minister of tourism. Romero Jucá had to resign after a week and within a month, minister Henrique Eduardo Alves also resigned because of his involvement. He is said to have received almost 400,000 euros. Education minister Mendonca Filho is also suspected of accepting 29,000 dollars in bribes from UTC to finance his campaign in 2014. Michel Temer himself is said to have asked for a similar amount.
Antonio Palocci
Lula and Rousseff’s go-between, former presidential chief of staff and former finance minister Antonio Palocci, was listed under the alias “the Italian” on spreadsheets and in Odebrecht’s administration and was arrested. Palocci was forced to resign in 2006 amid corruption allegations. He then joined Rousseff’s as chief of staff, but was forced to resign after six months after it emerged he had made a fortune as a consultant to private companies while still serving in Congress. His successor Guido Mantega was also arrested for questioning. Federal Judge Sergio Moro has indicted Palocci and seized all of his assets and bank accounts. Palocci acted as an intermediary between the ruling Workers’ Party (PT) and Odebrecht SA. Odebrecht paid 39.5 million to the PT through Palocci between 2008 and 2013. Emails serve as supporting evidence of Palocci’s participation in a kickback scheme in which he was responsible for coordinating and receiving payments from the Odebrecht Group. Palocci is also said to have improperly approved government loans for oil platforms from development bank BNDES to Odebrecht in Africa (Angola) and to have pushed through legislation in Congress to give the company tax breaks. Palocci was an intermediary in the purchase of oil blocks from Petrobras in Angola. Part of the proceeds (some $40 million) from the exploitation of the Angolan oil is said to have been used for the re-election campaign of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as president. Nestor Cervero stated that the deal was facilitated by the payment of bribes to Angolan government agents, with Palocci allegedly participating in the negotiations. Branislav Kontic (aka “Brani”), a former Palocci aide and ex-minister Juscelino Dourado were also arrested because he appeared in the spreadsheet under the alias “JD” and was booked for receiving 48 million dollars. Palocci was sentenced to 12 years in prison on June 26, 2017, for corruption and money laundering. He was arrested in September last year on suspicion of corruption and it became clear that he had, among other things, channeled bribes from the major Brazilian oil company Petrobras to the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). Palocci provides further details about illegal money flows within the party and the relationship with Odebrecht, which could further reduce his sentence. Between 2003 and 2011, Palocci was a minister under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and chief of staff for his successor Dilma Rousseff.
Milton Schahin
Grupa Schahin was charged with paying $2.5 million in bribes. Milton Schahin confessed that in 2011 he was approached by lobbyist Jorge Luz to partially settle a $12 million campaign debt of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and paid the amount in ten installments through Eduardo Musa’s offshore companies. Carlos Bumlai, also received money from Schahin in 2004 and channeled it to PT. Petrobras rewarded Schahin Engenharia with a drilling contract in exchange for canceling the loan. Police arrested PT Secretary General Silvio Pereira and Treasurer Delubio Soares for accepting the bribes.
Zwi Skornicki
Zwi Skornicki, the commercial agent of Keppel Corporation and Keppel Fels, who was arrested in February, has been identified as an accomplice intermediary by the ex-director Pedro Jose Barusco. During a search of Skornicki’s home, documents were subsequently found of the “marketing couple” Moura and Santana, who were responsible for the campaigns of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2006 and Dilma Rousseff in 2010 and 2014. Santana’s offshore bank account in the name of Shellbil Finance SA in Panama was found to be richly filled by Obrecht and Skornicki. 7 million dollars had been transferred between September 2013 and November 2014, of which 1.5 million in three deposits during the period in which they worked exclusively for Dilma Rousseff and the campaign in 2014. Intermediary Skornicki himself also made a profit. At his country house in Rio de Janeiro Hills was a collection of at least 12 expensive cars including Rolls Royces, Ferraris, Porsches and Mercedes Benz. The judiciary is investigating the possible involvement of Keppel, Keppel Offshore, SembIndustries, SembMarine and Jurong Shipyard. In December 2016, Odebrecht settled for $3.5 billion after it was found that $788 million in bribes had been paid in 12 different countries
Jader Barbalho
A report from the Federal Police provides evidence that Edison Lobão (MDB-MA) and Jader Barbalho (MDB-PA) jointly benefited from the award of the contract for the work on the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, one of the largest companies in the world for energy generation.
Renan Calheiros
The Supreme Court has ruled that Senate President Renan Calheiros should be prosecuted for embezzlement and that he must answer for misuse of public funds to benefit his daughter from an extramarital affair. Calheiros allegedly used public money to financially support her. On December 5, 2016, he was removed from office by the Brazilian Supreme Court, but a majority of his fellow Supreme Court justices turned out on December 7 to be in favor of him serving his term. However, he will no longer be allowed to serve as the president’s successor. Caleiros rejected the order of one of the Supreme Court justices to resign and appealed. There are eleven investigations against him for corruption, most of which are related to bribery scandals at Petrobras. For example, he is said to have received $500,000 in bribes from Odebrecht.
Nestor Cervero
Nestor Cervero, the former international CEO of Petrobras, was convicted of paying 4 million dollars to Eduardo Consentino da Cunha. Lobbyist Fernando Soares, better known as Fernando Baiano, confirmed having made ten to twenty transfers totaling 4 million dollars to PMDB leader (2013) Eduardo Cunha at the PMDB office in Rio. Cervero also promised to pay 6 million dollars to the PMDB. Cervero and the two other defendants in turn received bribes from Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries in exchange for two contracts for drilling ships in 2007 and 700,000 from Alstom for the supply order of turbines. Cervero was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering. It was not his first sentence. In May 2015, he was already sentenced to 5 years in prison for embezzlement and money laundering from Petrobras and the purchase of a luxury apartment in Rio de Janeiro. He was fired in 2014 and arrested in January when he got off a plane returning from Europe. Nestor Cervero gave incriminating statements, saying among other things that ex-minister Palocci facilitated a bribe deal with agents of the Angolan government. Cervero names the chairman of Sonangol, state-owned Petroleum Angola, Manuel Vicente as a source.
Eduardo Cunha
Chief prosecutor Rodrigo Janot was given permission by the Supreme Court to arrest PMDB leader Eduardo Cunha, José Sarney, Renan Calheiros and Romero Juca for obstruction and hindrance. Petrobras donated money to the PMDB, which includes both current president Michel Temer and Cunha. Cunha had previously been suspended as president of the Chamber due to the suspicions and eventually resigned on 8 July. He also had to give up his parliamentary seat and thus loses his immunity. 450 members of parliament voted for his expulsion, only ten people were against. Cunha is now banned from political activity for eight years. Cunha also wants to reveal facts about corrupt practices of other parliamentarians and ministers in exchange for a reduced sentence. Approximately three out of five members of the House of Representatives are the subject of judicial investigation. Cunha is suspected of laundering bribes from Petrobras through Swiss bank accounts held in the name of his wife Claudia Cruz, from which $1 million was laundered over a seven-year period (2008-2014) by buying expensive shoes and designer clothes in Paris, Rome and Dubai using credit cards. The amount was part of the $34.5 million Cunha received in 2011. Claudia Cruz was officially charged with money laundering on 9 June 2016. Prosecutor Janot also wants to suspend Renan Calheiros as president of the Senate. Romero Jucca had already resigned as Minister of Planning due to the disclosures of the audiotapes handed over to the judiciary by the director of the state-owned Transpetro Sérgio Machado. Cunha was the driving force behind the impeachment of Dylma Rousseff.
Edison Lobao
Lula’s former Minister (2008) of Mines and Energy Edison Lobão (PMDB) is suspected of accepting the $50 million from Petrobras. Sérgio Cabral, governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, has also been arrested on corruption charges.
Blairo Maggi
An official complaint has been filed against Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi. He is alleged to have been involved in corruption practices in the state of Mato Grosso in 2009 when he was governor. Among other things, Maggi is alleged to have paid a local court judge 2.8 million euros in Reals to take early retirement so that an accomplice of Maggi could take his post. The accomplice is also being prosecuted. Maggi denies the charges.
Guido Mantega
Lula’s former finance minister (2006 and 2014) Guido Mantega was also arrested earlier and officially charged. Mantega is accused of brokering two cash payments totaling $50 million to Dilma Rousseff’s 2014 re-election campaign. An old friend of Mantega, Victor Sandri, one of the owners of the Commercial Group Cement Penha, was forgiven a huge tax debt of $16 million by a commission (GMV) he himself had set up.
Francisco Rodrigues
Senator Francisco Rodrigues was arrested and resigned after being found with a large amount of cash during a house search on October 14, 2020. Federal police detained him on suspicion of alleged misuse of public funds intended for the fight against the coronavirus. Rodrigues attempted to hide some 30,000 reais (about 4,500 euros), some of it in his underwear. Jair Bolsonaro subsequently granted the senator resignation at his own request. There are also a series of investigations into alleged corruption in the purchase of medical equipment to fight COVID-19.
Nidera
Rotterdam-based Nidera was bought by the Chinese state-owned company COFCO. In 2014, COFCO paid $1.3 billion for 51% of the shares in Nidera, and another $450 million was later transferred for the remaining interest. But Nidera did not do too well financially after that, and the Chinese discovered that extensive accounting fraud had taken place within Nidera Brazil.was committed. This had already led to years of legal wrangling between COFCO, Nidera and EY. EY Netherlands and EY Brazil were the auditors of Nidera Capital (the top holding of the Nidera group) and Nidera Brazil respectively. The Rotterdam District Court has made four important rulings in the mega case. Within the Brazilian branch of Nidera, the CEO committed fraud over a long period of time. “At Nidera Brazil, He was assisted in this by the country controller of Nidera Brazil”. “Other management members did not or insufficiently interfere with the CEO and let him do his thing.” The fraud mainly concerned the valuation of the raw materials contracts of Nidera Brazil (the so-called MtM valuation, valuation at the current market value). The court notes that the parties involved essentially agree that there was extensive fraud at Nidera Brazil in which the highest management of Nidera Brazil was involved. “It is not disputed between the parties that he had a very dominant role within Nidera Brazil, surrounded himself with confidants and encountered little to no resistance when he determined at his own discretion how certain items should be processed in the accounts. The documents show that there was inadequate internal control within the Nidera group and that accountant EY NL had already warned about the resulting risks before 2013 and afterwards. The CEO completely derailed and came in smelling of drink when the MtM spreadsheets had to be viewed. He was very dominant and changed everything. The main issue at the Rotterdam District Court was whether EY Nederland and EY Brazil, as former accountants of Nidera Capital and Nidera Brazil, are liable for the consequences of the accounting fraud, because COFCO, as the buyer of the Nidera group, was allegedly misled because the annual accounts of the Nidera group gave an incorrect picture of the financial situation of the group. In an earlier interim judgment, it was already ruled that Dutch law applies. The court rules that EY Brazil is indeed liable: “EY Brazil made errors in its audit work for the 2013 consolidated annual accounts by overlooking irregularities in the MtM1 valuation related to that fraud. To the extent that COFCO Coöp suffered damage as a result of those errors, EY Brazil is liable for them. Errors were also made in the audit work of EY Brazil for the 2015 consolidated annual accounts and EY Brazil is liable to COFCO Coöp if COFCO Coöp suffered damage as a result. Furthermore, EY Nederland made a professional error with regard to the audit of the 2015 consolidated annual accounts, the court rules. This is also the preliminary opinion with regard to the 2013 consolidated annual accounts,but the accounting firm will still be given the opportunity to refute this with regard to that year: “EY NL is not liable for risk under article 6:171 BW for errors made by EY Brazil. However, the court is provisionally of the opinion that EY NL also made a professional error in its audit task with regard to the consolidated annual accounts of 2013. EY NL failed to set up and carry out the audit in such a way that it had sufficient and suitable audit information in accordance with the regulations in the NV COS to be able to form an opinion on the correctness of those annual accounts. EY NL will be allowed to provide evidence to the contrary. With regard to the consolidated annual accounts of 2015, it has been established that EY NL made a professional error in its audit task. The court finds that the possibility that damage has been or will be suffered (at COFCO) due to EY’s professional errors is plausible. This will still have to be judged in a damage assessment procedure. In an indemnity case that EY then brought against Nidera the accounting firm manages to get the Rotterdam trading house to pay for any damage suffered by EY:
“As a result of this accounting fraud, manipulated data was provided to EY NL, via EY Brazil, in the context of the audit by EY NL of the consolidated annual accounts of 2013. EY NL approved the consolidated annual accounts of 2013 while they contained a material inaccuracy as a result of the aforementioned fraud. If the preliminary evidence provided is substantially […] upheld, EY NL is liable to COFCO Coöp for the consequences thereof, because EY NL has insufficiently fulfilled its audit task and has thus breached a duty of care towards COFCO Coöp. Nidera Brazil is liable in the given circumstances on the grounds of tort for the damage that EY NL in turn (possibly) suffers or will suffer as a result. […] Nidera Brazil is not liable to EY NL for the consequences of EY NL’s liability to COFCO Coöp for the inaccuracy of the consolidated annual accounts of 2015. That inaccuracy is not the result of the accounting fraud at Nidera Brazil but of an accounting choice of Nidera Brazil that is unacceptable according to accounting standards but permitted by EY Brazil, which was not noticed by EY NL due to insufficient attention and/or expertise in its audit work.