When a world-renowned banker and a congressman were busted last week as part of the biggest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history, the international spotlight naturally fell on the young tycoon, Andre Esteves.
Yet to long-time Brazil watchers, it was the detention of the legislator – a ruling party dealmaker named Delcidio Amaral – that marked a far more worrisome development for a country desperately seeking to contain a deepening financial and political crisis. His arrest not only delayed government efforts to resolve this year’s budget dispute, but it also dispelled a long-held belief that sitting lawmakers are all but untouchable because of a quirk in Brazilian law that affords politicians special treatment in criminal investigations.
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Though the probe into a pay-to-play scheme between Brazil’s biggest builders and the state-run oil giant Petrobras has already led to the jailing of former politicians, Amaral became the first sitting federal lawmaker to be arrested since Brazil’s return to democracy in the 1980s. Brazilian law prohibits politicians from being investigated or arrested without Supreme Court approval. Amaral, like Esteves, has denied any wrongdoing.
When the news broke early on Nov. 25, it was Esteves’s arrest on suspicion he and the legislator tried to interfere with the testimony of a jailed Petrobras executive that caught the world’s attention. Within hours, shares of Esteves’s BTG Pactual, Latin America’s biggest independent investment bank, were down as much as 39 percent as his image was being splashed on TV broadcasts across the globe.
More than a quarter of the deputies in the lower house are facing criminal lawsuits or probes before the Supreme Court, according to Congresso Em Foco, an online publication that specializes in legislative news. Among politicians being investigated by prosecutors for allegedly receiving kickbacks related to Petrobras contracts are the chiefs of both houses of Congress – Eduardo Cunha and Renan Calheiros. Cunha is the gatekeeper in charge of green-lighting the start of impeachment proceedings against Rousseff. Cunha and Calheiros have denied wrongdoing.
Ronaldo Caiado, the Senate leader for the opposition Democrats party, captured the mood in Brasilia after Amaral’s arrest when he addressed reporters last week. The country’s political leadership has become so discredited, he said, that "we should all just have the courage to resign and call for new elections."
https://archive.is/ngfcd
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-30/forget-esteves-it-s-the-other-brazil-bust-that-worries-insiders
Billionaire Andre Esteves, arrested on charges related to Brazil's huge Petrobras corruption probe, has resigned as chairman and CEO of Latin America's largest independent investment bank, it said late Sunday.
The arrest of such powerful men stunned Brazil, and indicated the scope of what prosecutors say was a massive bribes and faked contracts scheme at the state oil company involving politicians and business people.
Prosecutors say that Esteves was planning to finance an escape to Spain, via Paraguay, of former Petrobras executive Nestor Cervero in exchange for Cervero refusing to testify for the government.
The plan was allegedly suggested in a telephone call between Amaral and Cervero's son, who secretly recorded the discussion.
https://archive.is/ml3Y9
https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/arrested-brazilian-billionaire-resigns-head-investment-bank-123755981--finance.html