Delta's dangerous connections in São Paulo

Businessman Fernando Cavendish, owner of Delta, illegal gambling operator Carlinhos Cachoeira, and other "operators" of the corruption scheme led by the construction company are only not under house arrest because there is a shortage of electronic ankle monitors on the market. Operation Looting, unlike Lava Jato, sees no reason to keep them imprisoned until they reach plea bargain agreements. The operation investigates the embezzlement of R$ 370 million in works by DNIT (federal) and the Rio Aquatic Park (state). Another strange thing, in the current broad investigative landscape of Brazil, is that the Operation did not also target the works carried out by Delta for the São Paulo state government during the PSDB era, which are worth nearly one billion reais. Businessman Adir Assad, arrested in São Paulo on Thursday, is believed to be the political operator of Delta's São Paulo branch.

Between Alckmin's first term and the current one, which included the short government of José Serra, who resigned to run for President, contracts with Delta totaled, in adjusted values, no less than R$ 943 million. Fernando Cavendish's construction company signed 27 contracts with the São Paulo state government during this period, establishing formal relationships with state-owned giants such as Desenvolvimento Rodoviário SA (DERSA), the Department of Highways (DER), the Department of Water and Electric Energy (DAEE), the São Paulo State Basic Sanitation Company (SABESP), and the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP).

Of this total of R$ 943 million in contracts, R$ 178,5 million were signed and invoiced between 2002 and 2006, during Alckmin's first term, and from January 2011 onwards, when he assumed a new mandate. This is, in effect, a smaller relationship than the one the construction company had with the São Paulo state government during José Serra's administration: R$ 764,8 million between January 2007 and April 2010. Cavendish's counterpart in the contracts with Dersa, at a certain point, was the well-known Paulo Vieira de Souza, called Paulo Preto by his fellow PSDB members, who was summoned to testify before the Cachoeira Parliamentary Inquiry Commission in 2012. The one that came to nothing.

Delta's largest contract with agencies and companies of the São Paulo state government was with DERSA to carry out the expansion of the Tietê River marginal highway: R$ 415 million (adjusted values), during Serra's administration.

The connection between Cachoeira, Delta, and Adir Assad in the São Paulo construction projects, which the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry threatened to investigate but abandoned, would emerge in a second phase of Operation Looting. This is what would justify Assad's arrest. Through his companies, he received substantial deposits from construction companies that worked on state projects, including Delta. Through crooked channels, these funds, allegedly bribes, are believed to have financed the campaigns of the PSDB party. However, until now, the Operation has only mentioned projects of the DNIT (National Department of Transport Infrastructure) and the Rio de Janeiro state government, where Cavendish maintained lucrative contracts and a close friendship with former governor Sergio Cabral. Today, these relationships are practically broken.