Dirceu: De Grandis acted against the judge in defense of Alstom.
According to the former Chief of Staff, prosecutor Rodrigo De Grandis not only committed malfeasance in the Alstom case; he also allegedly lobbied to prevent Judge Ali Mazloum from assuming the position in the Sixth Criminal Court and thus taking command of the investigations into the case.
247 - More than simply shelving the Alstom case, prosecutor Rodrigo de Grandis also allegedly acted to prevent Judge Ali Mazloum from taking over the investigations. This accusation was made by Minister José Dirceu based on a report by Brasil Econômico. Read below:
As reported in Brasil Econômico: De Grandis lobbied against judge to prevent investigation into Alstom case.
It's all there in the Brazilian newspaper Econômico: prosecutor Rodrigo De Grandis, from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), the one who shelved two requests from the Swiss justice system and eight from the Ministry of Justice to help in the investigations of the Alstom scandal, allegedly lobbied to prevent the transfer of Judge Ali Mazloum from the 7th Federal Criminal Court of São Paulo to the 6th Court (specialized in money laundering crimes), because the latter would investigate the case.
The information was passed to the newspaper by a prosecutor and a judge. De Grandis was the prosecutor responsible in the Public Prosecutor's Office for the Alstom case, the cartel set up by the multinational to obtain multi-million dollar public works contracts from the state government by paying bribes to PSDB politicians and members of the São Paulo state's PSDB administrative machine.
The prosecutor and the judge told the newspaper that De Grandis and three other colleagues from the Public Prosecutor's Office lobbied the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF-3ª Região) to prevent the transfer of Judge Mazloum because in the 6th Court he could expedite the investigation of the case. The position of head judge in the 6th Federal Criminal Court has been vacant for three years.
Because he is a specialist in white-collar crimes and had achieved first place in the transfer process, Mazloum was the natural choice to assume the position, but after his name was submitted, the TRF (Regional Federal Court) canceled the appointment notice, claiming that a study would be conducted to allow the 6th Court to cease specifically handling money laundering cases.
According to the newspaper, De Grandis considers most of the crimes in the Alstom case to be time-barred, announced he was going on vacation and traveling to Sicily (Italy), and said he would only deal with the scandal in 2014.