Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) requests R$ 1 billion in compensation for irregularities in the construction of the São Paulo Regional Labor Court (TRT-SP).

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in São Paulo (MPF/SP) filed an enforcement action this Friday (22) to collect the money diverted from the works of the Labor Court of São Paulo, in the 1990s. The request for reimbursement of R$ 1,04 billion is directed at former judge Nicolau dos Santos Neto, former senator Luiz Estevão and businessman Fábio Monteiro de Barros.

The prosecution's request was made possible after the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) confirmed the decision of the Regional Federal Court that criminally convicted the three defendants in 2006. No further appeals are possible, allowing for the immediate collection of damages for material and moral harm caused by the crimes.

Two other requests for compensation had been filed in São Paulo on a provisional basis, given that the corruption cases were still under appeal. The difference now is that the action is based on a final criminal sentence.

"According to Article 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a final and unappealable criminal conviction can be enforced in civil court in cases of damages, when there is express recognition of the criminal act," stated, in a note, the public prosecutor Roberto Antonio Dassié Diana, author of the action.

The case

The scandal arose from collusion between Incal Incorporações, linked to Fábio Monteiro de Barros, and the OK Group, owned by Luiz Estevão, to participate in a bidding process opened in 1992 by Nicolau dos Santos Neto, who presided over the Regional Labor Court of the 2nd Region. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, they committed a series of irregularities, such as overpricing of materials, advance payments, and illicit transfers to bank accounts in Brazil and abroad. In 1998, the amount embezzled reached R$ 169,4 million.

Calculation

Of the total amount demanded by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, R$ 585 million refers to the misappropriated funds, already adjusted for inflation, and R$ 461,4 million was calculated as compensation for moral damages. "The adjusted amount of the misappropriated money reaches R$ 923 million, but part of this amount has already been returned," the prosecutor's office explained in a statement.

The amount already reimbursed refers to an agreement signed by the OK Group, owned by Luiz Estevão, with the Attorney General's Office, within the scope of another enforcement action underway in the Federal District, as a result of a ruling by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). "The group managed to pay the equivalent of R$ 338 million, until it stopped making payments in March 2016," the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office reported.

Fugitive

Last Wednesday (20), the Federal Police arrestedIn São Paulo, the last person convicted in the São Paulo Labor Court case was businessman José Eduardo Correa Teixeira Ferraz. He was a partner in the construction company Incal and was a fugitive.

Ferraz was sentenced to 22 years and four months in prison definitively, with no possibility of appeal. The businessman was on Interpol's wanted list, an international organization for police cooperation.