Operation Car Wash: Cleaning Up Corruption or Dirty Politics? By: Edward Mosella

            Beginning in 2014, what started as a money-laundering investigation at a car wash, later revealed corruption spanning to the highest levels of government in Brazil and within companies owned by the State of Brazil such as the oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) and construction giant Odebrecht (now known as Novonor).[1] Both companies were found to have offered bribes in exchange for contracts in Brazil and countries abroad, spanning as far north as Mexico, and at least seven other countries in Latin and Central America.[2] As of April of 2021, nearly 280 convictions and $800 million have been returned to Brazilian state coffers.[3] This has ignited offshoot investigations around the world.[4] Due to this, 41 countries have formally asked Brazilian authorities to help conduct investigations with their respective government officials and state-owned firms.[5] This scheme has become known as Operation Lava Jato (meaning “Car Wash”).

            “Corruption is a persistent problem in Brazilian politics.”[6] A Gallup poll from 2022 showed that seven in 10 Brazilians notice clear corruption in their government.[7] Two of the last four Brazilian presidents have been formally charged with corruption or bribery.[8] President Rousseff was impeached due to Petrobras corruption.[9] Furthermore, President Bolsonaro, tied to embezzlement and crimes against humanity, has spread false narratives about COVID-19 treatments and the outcome of the 2022 elections.[10] Although corruption is known to be widespread and has had a large impact on Brazilian politics, Lava Jato exposed the mainstream systemic corruption within the courts of Brazil, especially in the case of Sergio Moro and Lula da Silva.

            Sergio Moro is currently a Brazilian federal senator representing Paraná.[11] During the years of Operation Car Wash, he was a federal judge with over 20 years of experience.[12] He served as Brazil’s minister of justice and public security (2019–2020) and worked internationally on cases involving bribery, money laundering, and organized crime.[13]Moro had been one of Brazil’s most popular judges.[14] He was known for confronting the corruption within the political system.[15] However, since the Car Wash investigations, Brazil’s opinion towards him has drastically shifted.[16] Camila Rocha de Oliveira, a political scientist at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning stated, “It is important to understand that this is not just about . . . a politician from one party or the other – almost all politicians are against Moro.”[17]

            Moro’s involvement in the Car Wash scheme came to light when leaked messages from his time in charge of the corruption inquiry showed collusion with prosecutors and sharing confidential information on his behalf.[18] The messages involved aspects of Moro’s conviction of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was also charged with corruption.[19] The messages showed that the prosecutor involved in the proceedings “had serious doubts about whether there was sufficient evidence to establish Lula’s guilt.”[20] Moreover, the messages included conversations between Moro and the lead prosecutor, revealing that Moro “offered strategic advice to prosecutors and passed on tips for new avenues of investigation.”[21] Judges must remain impartial and neutral, just like in the United States, and cannot have ex parte communications in a manner such as Moro’s.[22]

            The chats also raised questions about the quality of the charges against Lula.[23] Lula was accused of receiving a beachfront triplex as a kickback for helping a contractor secure multimillion-dollar Petrobras contracts.[24] Messages involving the prosecutorial team showed that the lead prosecutor had serious doubts over two important elements of the case: “whether the triplex was in fact Lula’s and whether it had anything to do with Petrobras.”[25] Without the Petrobras link, the Car Wash task force lacked jurisdiction, and without proving Lula owned the triplex, the case would collapse, as it was central to the corruption allegations.[26]

            Operation Car Wash was one of Brazil’s most significant and controversial political investigations, exposing massive corruption and bringing down powerful figures.[27] “The United States Treasury Department called it the largest bribery case in history. [Today,] [b]illions of dollars [have been] recovered and sentences totaling more than 2,200 years were handed down to 165 prominent Brazilians, although only a fraction of those years was actually served.”[28]Operation Car Wash faced accusations of political bias, constitutional violations, and illegal leaks.[29] The leaked messages showed what Brazilians saw as strategized efforts to block Lula’s return to power.[30] Lula’s conviction, upheld on appeal, barred him from the 2018 presidential race, clearing the path for Jair Bolsonaro, who later appointed Moro, who oversaw Lula’s case, as his justice minister.[31] While the right saw Lava Jato as a victory against corruption, critics viewed it as a politically motivated effort to undermine the Workers' Party.[32] Its impact on Brazilian democracy remains widely debated today.[33]

[1] Amelia Cheatham, Lava Jato: See How Far Brazil’s Corruption Probe Reached, Council on Foreign Rel. (Apr. 19, 2021), https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/lava-jato-see-how-far-brazils-corruption-probe-reached.

[2] Id.

[3] Id.

[4] Id.

[5] Id.

[6] Dr. Christopher Sabatini & Jon Wallace, Democracy in Brazil, Chatham House (Jan. 24, 2023), https://www.chathamhouse.org/2022/08/democracy-brazil.

[7] Gabriela Ivanova, Brazil’s Systemic Mistrust of Elections and Democracy, The Chicago Council on Global Aff. (Dec. 19, 2022), https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/brazils-systemic-mistrust-elections-and-democracy.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] ICLRS, Sergio Fernando Moro, ICLRS (2023), https://www.iclrs.org/blurb/sergio-fernando-moro/.

[12] Id.

[13] Id.

[14] Bryan Harris, How Brazil’s ‘car wash’ anti-corruption crusader fell from grace, Financial Times (Jan.29, 2024), https://www.ft.com/content/212b85b1-53d8-47ce-9c38-6de740dc4aef.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Id.

[19] Andrew Fishman, Rafael Moro Martins, Leandro Demori, Alexandre de Santi, & Glenn Greenwald, Breach of Ethics: Part 15: Secret Brazil Archive, The Intercept (June 9, 2019), https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-lula-operation-car-wash-sergio-moro/.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Id.

[27] Id.

[28] Supra, n. 14.

[29] Supra, n. 19.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] Id.

[33] Id.