Trial upset by judge's joyride in seized Porsche
THE judge overseeing the insider-trading trial of Brazil’s most-famous fallen billionaire was removed from the case after he was accused of taking a joyride in one of the defendant’s seized luxury cars.
Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza breached the court’s ethics code by allegedly using assets seized from former billionaire Eike Batista, Brazil’s judicial oversight body has said.
The proceedings against Batista will be reassigned to another court, and Souza will be subject to a disciplinary investigation.
Souza did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment on the decision.
Batista’s Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, which was part of the businessman’s luxury car collection seized by Souza during the trial, was seen parked this week in the garage of the judge’s Rio apartment building.
Sergio Bermudes, Batista’s lawyer, petitioned to get the judge kicked off the case after providing photos showing the $157 000 (about R1.8-million) white SUV exiting Souza’s building.
Although the driver is not identifiable in the images, Judge Souza told Agencia Estado newswire that he took the car to his building’s garage because of a lack of parking at police and court facilities.
“There is no interpretative breach that allows a judge to keep or request the usage of a defendant’s property,” Brazil’s justice inspector general said. “It’s clear from several interviews that the federal judge chose to ignore the courts ethics code.”
Batista, who lost most of his $34.5-billion fortune when his energy and commodities empire collapsed, is being charged by Rio prosecutors for illegally dumping shares of his oil company using privileged information.
The company, at the time known as OGX, tumbled 95% in 2013 as it filed for bankruptcy protection after cutting output targets and halting most operations.
Once Brazil’s richest man, Batista is now more than $1billion in the hole, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, giving him the rare distinction of being a “negative billionaire”.
Souza last month ordered Batista’s assets in Brazil seized, as well as those of his two of his sons, a former wife and the mother of his third son.
The order led to the raid of Batista’s Rio mansion in which police took seven vehicles, including a Lamborghini Aventador, a police spokesman said at the time.
Authorities also seized a yacht, three jetskis and a speedboat, among other assets.
Following the trial’s first hearing in November, Souza called Batista a “symbolic figure”.
“He was the poster boy of his
Police took seven vehicles, including a Lamborghini, yacht and jet skis
own companies and with a megalomaniac dream of becoming the world’s richest man,” he said about the former billionaire at the time.
“To see a person with that type of attitude sitting at the defendant’s bench is a historic moment.”— Bloomberg