Eike Batista sentenced to 30 years in prison for corruption

A businessman allegedly paid more than $ 16 million in bribes to former governor Sérgio Cabral in exchange for his contracts with the Rio government, as well as a politician and his wife. The businessman Eike Batista was sentenced on Tuesday (03/07) to 30 years in prison for active bribery and money laundering offenses, accused of pouring out jars wine to the former Governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral (MDB). This is his first conviction.

The sentence was pronounced by Judge Marcelo Bretas of the 7th Federal Court of Rio, in which he emphasizes that the businessman will continue to be badigned to residence until exhaustion of resources.

Cabral, on the other hand, was sentenced to 22 years and eight months imprisonment in a closed regime for pbadive bribery, money laundering and tax evasion. foreign currency.

In the same action, Bretas also sentenced Cabral's wife, Adriana Ancelmo, to four years and six months in jail; the former right arm of the emedebista, Carlos Miranda, at eight years and six months; former Secretary of the Government Wilson Carlos, nine years and ten months; and Eike's right hand man, lawyer Flávio Godinho, 22 years old.

According to the complaint – resulting from Operation Efficiency, a deployment of the Lava Jet to Rio – Eike made improper payments of $ 16.5 million to Cabral in 2011 and attempted to conceal the tip to through a money laundering operation.

In order to conceal the payment, donor Renato Chebar, who operated for the former governor, reportedly created an Arcadia Offshore Associados, which signed a fictitious contract with Eike's Centennial Asset Mining Fund for l & rsquo; Presumed acquisition of a gold mine that never took place.

By false intermediation, Arcadia would receive 1.12% of the value of the transaction. Resources were transferred from an Eike account in Panama to an Arcadia account opened in Uruguay.

The investigations were based mainly on the award-winning demarcation of Chebar and his brother, Marcelo, who also operated for Cabral. According to them, the tip offered to the former governor was in exchange for favoring Eike companies in contracts with the state government.

Wilson Carlos and Miranda – described as "peak manager" by Lava Jato – were named as operators of the emedebista politician.

In his sentence, Bretas states that "the criminal architecture was created by the company itself [de Eike] and is very difficult to detect, the research organizations". On the business man, he said that he was a person who, "despite an affluent financial situation, revealed a great fraud in his actions."

Eike's lawyer, Fernando Martins, said that he would appeal the decision. In argument, the defense dismissed all charges, which he described as "creative" interpretation of the facts.

In a note, Cabral's lawyer, Rodrigo Roca, also stated that he would appeal the conviction, which he described as "unfair and disproportionate". According to Martins, the competent bodies have not been able to prove the paternity of the crimes.

Eike, owner of the EBX group, was once considered the richest man in Brazil and, in 2012, the seventh richest man in Brazil. by Forbes magazine. However, in recent years, its companies have been facing serious financial problems, in part because of a series of risky market transactions, which ultimately led to bankruptcy.

The businessman was arrested in January 2017 as a fugitive, and continued under house arrest in April of the same year, after an injunction by Minister Gilmar Mendes of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). He must be at home at night and on weekends and holidays.

Cabral, in turn, has been incarcerated since November 2016. In April of this year, he was transferred from Curitiba to a Rio prison.

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