Car Wash annulments like London buses

Léo Pinheiro. Photo: Paulo Lisboa/Brazil Photo Press/Folhapress

Léo Pinheiro, the former chairman of construction firm OAS, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to suspend a house arrest sentence for corruption and money laundering — and a BRL 45 million (USD 9 million) fine imposed as part of a plea bargain the court itself approved in 2019.

OAS fell from grace during Operation Car Wash, a massive anti-corruption task force, and has since successfully emerged from bankruptcy protection and changed its name to Metha.

Mr. Pinheiro was cited 21 times in the 2017 corruption and money laundering conviction that sent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to prison. Former judge Sergio Moro — now a senator in Lula’s opposition — found that OAS paid bribes to Petrobras officials in exchange for procurement contracts.

In 2021, the Supreme Court quashed Lula’s criminal convictions on the grounds that Mr. Moro was a biased judge.

Photos show Mr. Pinheiro and Lula together visiting a luxury apartment building in Guarujá, a coastal city in the state of São Paulo, in 2014. Construction of the building began under another company, but OAS took over in 2009 and completed it, including the triplex apartment Lula visited.

Lula was convicted of corruption for allegedly receiving the apartment (and its renovations) from OAS, and of money laundering for allegedly trying to conceal the asset.

Mr. Pinheiro’s new petition comes in the wake of Justice Dias Toffoli’s recent decision to suspend the payment of BRL 8.5 billion (USD 1.7 billion) in fines under a leniency agreement signed by global construction conglomerate Novonor, formerly known as Odebrecht, another major Car Wash target.

Mr. Pinheiro was arrested in both 2014 and 2016, and has been under house arrest since 2019.

The Lula administration and justices appointed by the president have been working to whitewash history and resume projects from previous editions of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), a package of public investments in infrastructure that left behind an extensive history of corruption and unfinished projects — several of which were investigated by Car Wash itself.