Brazil: Hurricane Blows Up the Toga

Oscar Niemeyer’s Supreme Court building, Brasília. See also my post Palaces of Justice.

Maracaju News runs the wire service story from the Estadão — the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. It’s one of the more informative overviews of the Operation Hurricane case I have seen so far, based on a peek at the PF report.

The odd thing is that the federal police are engaged in a 24-hour work slowdown today, nationwide, after having gained an extension of preventive detention in the Hurricane case.

Pending civil service and labor law reforms are creating complex turbulence — a bit too complex, sometimes, for my poor brain, so I will leave it at that. A stab at it, however, if you are interested:Look, Here’s The Scoop on the Brazilian Bureaucracy Wars.

But apparently their press office prepackaged some newsflow to take up the slack.

The latest development in Hurricane, I read, is that documents seized from the regional federal judge in Rio, Mr. Alvim, indicate that he was maintaining files on other persons involved in the scheme, in order to “protect himself” and apply political leverage.

It is astonishing the degree to which little has changed in the annals of modern crime.

Al Capone’s ledgers are what sent him to Alcatraz, after all.

And the Rio caça-níquel bust of last year produced a payroll spreadsheet, on a USB pen drive, listing the names of police, politicians, and even a Globo TV reporter who received regular payoffs to protect and operate the business.

There is no way around it: If you are going to do business, licit or illicit, you have to achieve economies of scale. And that means you have to count the beans, and count them carefully.

In the meantime, I am still reading this book on Antônio Carlos Magalhães in Bahia, which features an expressive photo of the man poring over part of a substantial library of “oppo research” files in his office.

Welcome to the future of America as envisioned by Alberto Gonzalez.

According to a report from the Folha news agency, meanwhile, 5 more federal judges are named in the Alvim dossier, and 40 more arrest warrants may be served shortly based on that and other evidence.

First, the backgrounder from the Estadão:

Ao longo de suas 2.878 páginas distribuídas em 12 volumes recheados de grampos, relatórios e documentos apreendidos, a Polícia Federal e o Ministério Público Federal descrevem uma organização criminosa claramente associada ao Judiciário e dedicada a pagar propinas em troca de decisões judiciais favoráveis aos interesses de proprietários de locadoras de máquinas de videopôquer, caça-níqueis e casas de bingo. No último dia 13 de abril, a Operação Hurricane (Furacão) prendeu 25 pessoas, entre juízes, policiais, advogados e bicheiros.

In 12 volumes and 2,878 pages filled with wiretaps transcripts, reports and seized documents, the Federal Police and the federal prosecutor’s office (MPF-PGR) describe a criminal organization clearly associated with the Judiciary and dedicated to paying bribes in exchange for judicial rulings in favor of videopoker, “one-armed bandit,” and bingo owners. On April 13, Operation Hurricane arrested 25 persons, including judges, police, lawyers and bicho bankers.

O relato da investigação, obtido pelo Estado, mostra que a PF conseguiu mapear uma rede de negociações entre intermediários dos bicheiros e bingueiros e o advogado Virgílio Medina, irmão do ministro do Superior Tribunal de Justiça, Paulo Medina, além de outros expoentes do Poder Judiciário.

The report on the investigation, obtained by the Estado de S. Paulo, shows that the PF managed to map out a network of business dealings between intermediaries of the bicho and bingo bankers and attorney Virgílio Medina, brother of state supreme court justice Paulo Medina, along with other judges.

Copies of lawsuits on the docket of judge Medina were found in his brother’s law offices, one reads today.

Conforme os grampos telefônicos, Virgílio chegou a pedir R$ 1 milhão – depois reduzido para R$ 600 mil – para obter de seu irmão ministro uma decisão favorável à empresa Betec Games, dona de caça-níqueis apreendidos por decisão judicial no Rio. No inquérito, a PF aponta que Virgílio Medina, preso pela PF, atuou “com o único propósito de fazer a intermediação e negociação da decisão a ser proferida por seu irmão”. O ministro Medina concedeu decisão favorável à empresa.

According to wiretap transcripts, Virgilio asked for R$1 million — later reduced to R$600,000 — in order to deliver a favorable verdict from his brother in a matter involving Betec Games, an electronic gambling machine company whose machine had been seized under a Rio judicial order. In its investigation, the PF charges Virgilio, whom it arrested, with having acted “for the sole purpose of serving as a go-between and negotiator of the decision to be handed down by his brother.” Judge Medina ruled in favor of Betec.

In wiretaps from Operation Ball of Fire, lawyers and “consultants” are heard discussing similar deals involving justices of Brazil’s supreme court. See

• Brazil: Ball of Fire Flames Get Higher For Paraguayan Marlboro Men
• The Ball of Fire MP3s: Pertence, Publicity and the Perpetual Pizza Oven
• Blackout on Pertence Charge; Mello Also in the Mishegaas?
• Charge: Brazilian Supreme Court Justice ‘Sold Verdicts’

The MPF has taken statements but no further action has been announced.

Por conta dos indícios de envolvimento de Paulo Medina no caso, o inquérito passou a ser conduzido no STF, encarregado de investigar ministros de tribunais superiores. Outro braço no Judiciário apontado na articulação com a quadrilha envolve o desembargador do Tribunal Regional Federal (TRF) da 2ª Região, José Eduardo Carreira Alvim, também preso na operação. Alvim concedeu liminares favoráveis às empresas de bingo. A PF afirma que o próprio magistrado, “ciente da teratologia (monstruosidade) dessas decisões”, cita, nos grampos, que, “se o recurso for para Paulo Medina”, no STJ, “terá êxito, caso contrário, não”.

Because of the indications of Paulo Medina’s involvements, the investigation was suypervised in the Supreme Court, which is charged with investigating judges. Another branch of the Judiciary pointed to in the scheme involved Alvim, who was also arrested in Hurricane. Alvim granted injunctions favorable to bingo enterprises. The PF says that the judge himself, “fully aware of the teratological (monstrous) nature of these decision,” says, on a wiretap, that “if the appeals goes to Paulo Medina, it will succeed, but if it doesn’t, it won’t.”

“Teratological” is a fine example of Brazilian legal Gongorismo — and, as it happens, a fine word, too. Teratology is the branch of medicine investigating

… the causes and biological processes leading to abnormal development and birth defects …

Hey, who has not ever been tempted to spice up a dry report with two-dollar college-boy words?

It’s one of my own worst vices as a writer, I admit that.

A PF obteve os detalhes da operação que teria acertado o pagamento de R$ 1 milhão ao advogado Virgílio Medina porque instalou, com autorização do Supremo Tribunal Federal, escutas ambientais no escritório do advogado e do desembargador Carreira Alvim.

PF obtained details on the operation to procure the R$1 million payment to Virgílio Medina after installing listening devices in the attorney’s offices and Judge Carreira Alvim’s chambers.

Nas investigações, a PF identificou ainda uma conexão eleitoral. Um policial civil – Marcos Bretas – teria sido encarregado por bingueiros e bicheiros de centralizar a negociação de recursos para financiar candidaturas (aparentemente de deputados) às eleições de 2006.

The PF also discovered a link to electoral politics. The bingueiros and bicheiros put a civil police agent, Marcos Brétas, in charge of centralizing the negotiation of campaign funding (apparently for legislators) in the 2006 elections.

O fio da meada foi a abertura de uma investigação, conforme ofício do procurador-geral da República, Antônio de Souza, encaminhada ao STF em 2006, pela inteligência da PF, para “apurar crimes praticados por uma organização criminosa, composta por proprietários de locadoras de máquinas de videopôquer, caça-níqueis e casas de bingo, intermediários e servidores, dedicada à exploração de jogos de azar, intermediação ilegal de componentes eletrônicos e prática de crimes contra a administração pública”. A PF identificou, em grampos autorizados, que a organização – representada pela empresa Betec Games – tinha interesse na liberação de caça-níqueis apreendidos por liminar da Justiça Federal em Niterói.

The key thread was the opening in 2006 of an investigation by the PF criminal intelligence division, based on a request from the federal attorney, Antônio de Souza to the Supreme Court, to “uncover crimes practiced by a criminal organization made up of [illegal gambling proprietors], which is dedicated to exploiting illegal gambling, illegal brokering of electronic components, and crimes against the public administration.” In authorized wiretaps, the PF discovered that the organization — represented by Betec Games — was interested in the release of gaming machines apprehended on the order of a federal court in Niterói, in Rio de Janeiro state.

“Há indícios de que decisões exaradas (registradas) pelo desembargador federal Carreira Alvim foram obtidas através de acordos prévios entre os lobistas-advogados Sérgio Luzio Araújo e Silvério Nery Cabral Júnior (genro de Carreira Alvim), com provável motivação venal” do desembargador.

“There are indications that the decisions made by Carreira Alvim were obtained through previous agreement with lawyer-lobbyists Sérgio Luzio Araújo and Silvério Nery Cabral Júnior (Carreira Alvim’s son in law), probably out of venial motives” on the part of the judge.

A decisão de Carreira Alvim que beneficiava a Betec foi cassada pela primeira Turma do TRF do Rio em junho de 2006. A organização criminosa, então, entrou com a reclamação 2.211/2006, distribuída ao ministro Paulo Medina. A quadrilha passou então a se movimentar para obter os serviços do escritório do irmão do ministro, Virgílio Medina. Com os grampos, a PF identificou os contatos do advogado Sérgio Luzio com o irmão de Medina. Primeiro, acertou-se a cobrança de R$ 1 milhão para a atuação de Virgílio. O valor caiu até chegar a R$ 600 mil, divididos em 20% na entrada e 80% no sucesso, após a decisão do ministro Medina.

Alvim’s decision in favor of Betec was overturned by the First Turma of the TRF in June 2006. The criminal organization then filed Appeal No. 2,211/2006, which was assigned to Paulo Medina. The gang then maneuvered to procure the services of Medina’s brother, Virgílio. From wiretaps, the PF identified contacts between Sérgio Luzio and Virgílio. At first, the sum of R$1 million was agreed upon as a fee for Virgílio’s services. The amount finally settled on was R$600,000, with 20% up front and 80% upon delivery, after Judge Medina’s ruling.