Court removes judge who helped Cachoeira's group.
Wiretaps by the Federal Police and documents suggest that Júlio César Cardoso de Brito was involved in influence peddling and advising the gang's lawyers on how to handle cases in court.
247 – The Regional Labor Court of Goiás removed Judge Júlio César Cardoso de Brito from his position on suspicion of involvement with Cachoeira's group. According to wiretaps conducted by the Federal Police and other documents, the magistrate advised lawyers for the illegal gambling operator's gang on how to proceed with cases in court, in addition to engaging in influence peddling. Read more about the case at [link to article]. Fred's BlogFrom Folha de S.Paulo, or the full report by Frederico Vasconcelos below:
TRT removes judge linked to Cachoeira group.
BY FREDERICO VASCONCELOS
The Goiás Court opens proceedings to investigate the actions of Júlio César Cardoso de Brito.
A report authored by the editor of this blog, published this Saturday (July 14th) in Folha, reveals that the Regional Labor Court of the 18th Region, based in Goiás, has removed from his duties Judge Júlio César Cardoso de Brito, accused of involvement with businessman Carlinhos Cachoeira.
Wiretaps conducted by the Federal Police and documents forwarded to the Regional Labor Court by the 11th Federal Criminal Court of Goiás suggest that Brito was involved in influence peddling and advising lawyers from Cachoeira's group on how to handle cases in court.
By unanimous vote, the judges of the court decided this Thursday to open disciplinary proceedings to investigate complaints filed by the Labor Prosecutor's Office and the Union of Federal Employees in Goiás.
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The day before, Brito had requested leave from his duties as vice-president and inspector general. The Regional Labor Court appointed Judge Platon Teixeira de Azevedo Filho to assume Brito's duties for the duration of the court investigations.
The case includes 77 phone calls intercepted by the police, in which the judge converses with one of Cachoeira's right-hand men, Gleyb Ferreira da Cruz, whom Brito refers to as "brother".
In the conversations, the judge discusses the situation of companies with labor lawsuits in the Regional Labor Court of Goiás, including the Vitapan laboratory in Cachoeira, the JC drug distributor, owned by a brother of the businessman, and Ideal Segurança.
There are suspicions that a trip the judge took to Buenos Aires was sponsored by Gleyb. In one of the recorded conversations, an associate of Cachoeira discusses with Brito the order of a computer that the businessman would bring to him from Miami (USA).
The judge stated that he did not participate in the judgment of cases of interest to the companies, but the court understood that he was guiding the group's lawyers by exchanging messages identifying cases for monitoring at the Regional Labor Court.
Brito's involvement with Cachoeira was initially investigated by an internal inquiry commission, established in May, after reports published by the newspapers "O Popular," from Goiás, and "Correio Braziliense," from Brasília, revealed the judge's connections with Cachoeira's group.
The judge argued in his defense that he had no influence whatsoever on the judgment of the cases.
He stated that he maintained social contact with Gleyb Ferreira da Cruz and with the (suspended) Federal Police delegate Deuselino Valadares dos Santos, but that it did not reach the level of close friendship or any business relationship.
He maintained that he only knew Carlinhos Cachoeira superficially, without any daily contact.
He said that on the trip to Buenos Aires with his wife, accompanied by Gleyb Ferreira da Cruz and Marcos Antônio Ramos, each traveled at their own expense.