Brazilian court mocks Alckmin and orders Siemens to reopen.
According to Judge Celina Kiyomi Toyoshima of the 4th Public Treasury Court of São Paulo, if the government wants to receive compensation for the funds embezzled in the bribery scheme, it must sue all companies accused of collusion to rig bids for the Metro and CPTM (São Paulo Metropolitan Train Company) since Mario Covas's administration, not just Siemens; the State Attorney General's Office has become a joke in legal circles for "creating" a cartel of only one company; Alstom was not mentioned.
247 Judge Celina Kiyomi Toyoshima, of the 4th Public Treasury Court of São Paulo, has ordered the government of Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) to redo the lawsuit filed in August against the German multinational Siemens, accused of forming a cartel to rig bids for the Metro and CPTM since the administration of Mario Covas.
According to the courts, if the government wants to receive compensation for the misappropriated funds, it must also sue companies accused of collusion: "The integration of all parties is indispensable, otherwise conflicting decisions may arise should future lawsuits be filed."
The original lawsuit was met with ridicule within legal circles, with some saying that the State Attorney General's Office had created an anomaly similar to a one-man gang: it was a cartel of just one company.
Last month, Alckmin admitted that "no one forms a cartel alone" and that the process to prevent Siemens from participating in new bids will be "extended to other" companies if their participation in the "collusion" that acted in state tenders is proven.
"As other companies are proven to have participated in the lawsuits, compensation and ineligibility proceedings will also be initiated against them. We started with Siemens, which is the first, but it will be extended to the others as well," he said.