Ask Cacciola: Does crime pay in Brazil?
Convicted of embezzling public funds, a fugitive, arrested in Monaco and extradited to Brazil, a new law could get Salvatore Cacciola out of jail now; his 13-year sentence could, in practice, be served in less than 5 years.
On Friday the 15th, a court in Rio de Janeiro granted a reduction in the sentence of former banker Salvatore Alberto Cacciola, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crimes of fraudulent management and embezzlement of public funds. According to the decision of Judge Roberta Barrouin Carvalho, of the Criminal Enforcement Court, the sentence is reduced by a quarter.
With the reduction, the former owner of Banco Marka will have served one-third of the 13-year prison sentence to which he was originally condemned, which paves the way for a request for parole, a regime in which he would serve the remainder of his sentence in freedom. In her decision, the judge states that "the convict, a first-time offender, served a quarter of his sentence on November 7, 2010, and was not punished for any serious misconduct throughout the entire year of 2010, respectively."
The Rio de Janeiro State Public Prosecutor's Office (MPE) had already expressed its opposition to reducing the former banker's sentence. In March, the MPE managed to block a previous request for a reduced sentence for Cacciola made by his defense lawyers.
The former owner of Banco Marka has been imprisoned since September 2007, when he was captured in the Principality of Monaco by Interpol. He is currently serving his sentence in Bangu 8, in the Gericinó Penitentiary Complex, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro. The commutation request was made by his defense lawyers based on Presidential Decree 7.420, from December of last year, which reduces by one-quarter the sentence of convicts over 60 years of age who have not committed heinous crimes. In January, Cacciola turned 67.