Lava Jato will need to convict Palocci in order to convict Lula.
The testimony of former senator Delcídio do Amaral to federal judge Sérgio Moro about former minister Antônio Palocci, businessman Marcelo Odebrecht and 13 other people, which takes place this Friday (3), is an important piece to test the scope of the viability of a theory that leads to Lula's conviction; as happened in the accusations of the Lava Jato team against Lula, the accusation of Palocci is surrounded by weaknesses, few corroborating materials and plea bargains; directly, Lula's conviction depends on Palocci's conviction.
GGN newspaper - Delcídio do Amaral testifies this Friday afternoon (03), in Curitiba, to federal judge Sérgio Moro about former minister Antônio Palocci, businessman Marcelo Odebrecht and 13 other people. The process is an important piece for investigators and the magistrate from Paraná to test the scope of the viability of the theory that leads to Lula's conviction.
Accused of corruption and money laundering, Delcídio will recount the alleged role of the former minister in the corruption scheme of Operation Lava Jato. Last October, Delcídio identified Palocci as the central figure and one of the main players in the scheme, with the ultimate goal of securing the main conviction: that of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Similar to the accusations made by the Lava Jato task force against Lula, Palocci's indictment is riddled with weaknesses, little corroborating evidence, and plea bargains. In this last instance, Delcídio has been the task force's greatest ally.
In short, Lula's conviction depends on Palocci's conviction. Given the high risk for the judge in Paraná to accept weak accusations against the former president, the former minister is a key figure: besides being identified as the intermediary in the scheme leading to the grand finale against Lula, he is the test for the group of prosecutors, under the coordination of Deltan Dallagnol, to see to what extent the charges against Lula would be validated.
In one of the accusations, Palocci acted illicitly to benefit the construction company Odebrecht in the contracting of shipyards and the construction of platforms and drillships by Petrobras, including deals in the pre-salt fields, with agreements involving more than US$ 21 billion, without, however, data on how much of that amount was diverted, corrupted, or actually used.
In another argument, investigators have already traced the entire network of irregularities against Sete Brasil, a Petrobras joint venture with the banks BTG Pactual, Bradesco, and Santander, as well as the pension funds Petros, Previ, and Vale do Rio Doce. Since Sete was responsible for the shipyard contracts for 28 platforms and drilling rigs for the state-owned company, and Antônio Palocci participated in the creation of Sete Brasil, he would automatically be held accountable, according to Lava Jato.
The argument is that the company was created with the sole or primary objective of participating in the multi-million dollar corruption scheme and, according to the theory of command responsibility, Palocci is one of the scheme's creators. An excerpt from the indictment states: "the bribery collection model, which already existed at Petrobras, was also applied to Sete Brasil. (...) Palocci participated in the entire economic structuring of Sete Brasil."
"As demonstrated by the various emails seized from Marcelo Odebrecht and other executives of the group, the illicit communication established with Antonio Palocci undoubtedly occurred during the period when Antonio Palocci held the position of Minister of Finance in the Lula government," say the prosecutors in the conclusion of the "bridge" of corruption that Palocci allegedly maintained with former President Lula.
Delcídio elaborates on the narrative: "Antônio Palocci was like the software of the Workers' Party (PT), while João Vaccari Neto and José Di Filipi were the hardware, that is, the executors of what Palocci thought and structured," he stated in his testimony.