Gloomy end for Brazil’s anti-corruption task force

SAO PAULO: A prominent task force of Brazilian prosecutors was officially disbanded, marking the symbolic end of an investigative unit initially praised for tackling impunity among the nation’s political and business elite but lately under fire for allegations of bias in its probes.

The “Car Wash” investigation began in March 2014 looking into black market money-changing involving a gas station in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, but it soon discovered billions of dollars in kickbacks related to construction contracts awarded by

Petrobras.

Investigators found that much of the illicit funds went to party coffers and politicians’ pockets.

The unit shared its findings with other nations, which spread the anti-corruption reckoning across the region.

Former presidents including Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Peru’s Alejandro Toledo, Panamá’s Ricardo Martinelli and El Salvador’s Mauricio Funes were all jailed for some time as a result of Car Wash investigations, as were top executives state-run oil giant of the major construction companies Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez, Queiroz Galvão and Camargo Correa.

Odebrecht recently itself Novonor.

The federal prosecutors’ office in the state of Paraná said in a statement yesterday that the task force’s nine members had been reassigned to a group that fights organised crime, named Gaeco.

Five of them will pursue continuing Car Wash investigations, while four are taking on entirely new obligations. renamed

There were smaller spinoffs of Car Wash probes in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Prosecutors in Rio will likewise be absorbed by Gaeco, while those in Sao Paulo resigned en masse last year.

The Parana-based Car Wash operation arrested 295 people, brought charges against 533 people and secured jail sentences for 174 people, according to the statement.

Its work recovered more than US$800mil (RM3.246bil) that had been lost to corruption. — AP