They found an important Brazilian businessman dead, investigated in the Lava Jato case

On Monday, the Brazilian authorities announced that the businessman was found dead on Sunday Antonio Claudio Albernaz Cordeiro – better known as Tonico Cordeiro in a house in the city of Porto Alegre. L & # 39; engineer he was arrested twice in actions related to the operation Lava Jato, which investigates the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil.

The civilian police opened an investigation to clarify his death, although the preliminary investigation brings out the suicide of the businessman.

The lifeless body was found Sunday in a house located south of Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil.

The police indicated that she will collect testimonies before preparing the final report and close the file, if the hypothesis of suicide is confirmed.

Cordeiro was arrested twice in two separate incidents in Operation Lava Jato, who has been investigating for five years the detours of millionaires detected in the national oil company Petrobras and who has imprisoned dozens of businessmen, prominent politicians and former presidents.

The authorities arrested him temporarily for the first time in March 2016. on suspicion of unlawful badociation, bribery and money laundering in the 26th phase of Lava Jato.

His second arrest took place in May of last year, in another action that investigated a plot to send abroad, irregularly, public resources of the Government of Rio de Janeiro.

However, the judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil Gilmar Mendes He was released on bail a month later and imposed a series of precautionary measures, such as the ban on leaving the country or contacting other people being the object of the 39; investigation.

The scandal discovered in Petrobras – known as Lava Jato – has imprisoned important businessmen and politicians. among them former Brazilian presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, imprisoned since last April to serve a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, and Michel Temer, stopped preventively since last Thursday.