The federal police sparked the 14th stage of the investigation to the fulfillment of eight preventive arrest warrants, four temporary detention, nine forceful and 38 search and seizure, in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul. Search and seizure warrants were met at the headquarters of the contractors Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez and the home of its executives. The prisoners were sent to the Superintendency of the Federal Police in Curitiba, Paraná, where they will be available to the Court. With the arrest of top leaders of the business front that looked about 6 billion reais of Petrobras safes, Operation Lava Jet lack only reach the highest echelons of national politics involved in this mega corruption that shakes the foundations of the Brazilian Republic.

1. 1
THE SIEGE OF LAVA JATO OPERATION TO HEADS OF GANG WHO
ROBBED PETROBRAS
Fernando Alcoforado *
Presidents of Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, and other executives of these
companies were recently arrested in new phase of Lava Jato Operation because headed
the cartel of companies that won contracts from Petrobras in exchange for bribe to state
officials and politicians. The federal police sparked the 14th stage of the investigation to
the fulfillment of eight preventive arrest warrants, four temporary detention, nine
forceful and 38 search and seizure, in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio
Grande do Sul. Search and seizure warrants were met at the headquarters of the
contractors Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez and the home of its executives. The
prisoners were sent to the Superintendency of the Federal Police in Curitiba, Paraná,
where they will be available to the Court.
With the arrest of top leaders of the business front that looked about 6 billion reais of
Petrobras safes, Operation Lava Jet lack only reach the highest echelons of national
politics involved in this mega corruption that shakes the foundations of the Brazilian
Republic. The Lava Jato Operation, has been evolving satisfactorily thanks in large part
to the careful movements of federal judge Sergio Moro, largely responsible for the
conduct of the trial investigating the mega scheme of corruption at Petrobras. Since
March 2014, he authorized 161 search warrants and seizure, ordered the arrest of sixty
people and ordered the blocking of 200 million reais in bank accounts of suspects -
including officials of Petrobras and powerful businessmen [See the article Sergio Moro:
O juiz que faz andar a máquina em busca dos culpados pelo petrolão (Sergio Moro:
The judge who makes the machine go in search of the culprits by petrolão) published on
the website <http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/tag/operacao-maos-limpas/>].
Attempts to take the process from the hands of Judge Sergio Moro resulted in failure.
Those interested in him out of the case went through all instances of the Judiciary
claiming that he had no legal authority to conduct the process because with the
involvement of politicians in the scandal the "special jurisdiction" to prosecute those
involved would be the Supreme Court. They also claimed that the arrests of the suspects
were abusive and that the case should be transferred from Curitiba to Rio de Janeiro,
where is the Petrobras headquarters. Any judge of the Federal Court or the Supreme
Court or Minister of the Supreme Court upheld the objections. It is expected that the
Lava Jato Operation produces the same effects as Operation Clean Hands produced in
Italy during the 1990s.
On Operation Clean Hands, it should be noted that a judicial investigation was far-
reaching in Italy aimed at clarifying cases of corruption during the 1990s. From the
arrest of a militant of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), Mario Chiesa, accused of collect
bribes at the institution who ran triggered to mega-operation in criminal investigations.
With Operation Clean Hands were convicted politicians, businessmen and public and
private actors. Bettino Craxi, leader of the main PSI and former Prime Minister of Italy,
was punished for corrupt practices and illegal campaign financing. Weighed the
confession of entrepreneur Salvatore Ligresti that his company paid bribes to the PSI
and Craxi himself to get work since 1985 [See the article by Carlos Ramos, teacher,
consultant and PhD in political science from the Federal University of São Carlos -
Ufscar under the title Resultados da Operação Mãos Limpas (Results of Operation Clean
Hands) published on website

2. 2
<http://www.comerciodojahu.com.br/post?id=1319529&titulo=Resultados+da+Opera%
C3%A7%C3%A3o+M%C3%A3os+Limpas>].
In the said Article, Carlos Ramos says proved the influence peddling and corruption in
million-dollar contracts involving ENI, the Italian state oil company. Operation Clean
Hands proved that the state oil company ENI acted as a major source for the illegal
financing of parties and Italian political. Florio Fiorini, chief financial officer, and
Gabriele Cagliari, president of ENI, confessed that for years the company effected
monthly payments to the main political parties and their leaders. Cagliari committed
suicide in prison. In addition to the corruption schemes, Operation Clean Hands also
revealed the Italian State's relations with organized crime. Giulio Andreotti, the leader
of the Christian Democrats (DC) and former Prime Minister of Italy, was also
prosecuted for association with the mafia. It is very large, so the similarity between the
Operation Clean Hands in Italy and Operation Lava Jato in Brazil.
From Clean Hands Operation resulted in the political and electoral decline of the main
parties of the time, the PSI (Socialist Party) and the DC (Christian Democrats). The
political forces that dominated Italy since the postwar seen its power crumble and
disappear. Carlos Ramos, author of the article cited above, states that the Italian
experience, one can learn that the delegitimization of the political system, by itself,
cannot bring about the necessary changes. It is necessary, as there was there, effective
public participation in the fight against corruption. Carlos Ramos says the placement of
federal Judge Sergio Moro, responsible for operating Lava jet in Brazil, in an article that
he published in 2004, which analyzed the Operation Clean Hands, stated that "(...) the
lawsuit cannot replace democracy in the fight against corruption. It is the enlightened
public opinion that can, by its own institutional means, address the structural causes of
corruption".
The Clean Hands operation was to balance the research of 6,059 people, including 872
businessmen, 1,978 administrators and 438 parliamentarians, four of whom were prime
ministers. The Italian Court of Auditors stated that corruption within the public
administration of this country reached 60 billion euros a year with consequences
worldwide. The Clean Hands operation changed the balance of power in the political
dispute in Italy, reducing the power of parties that had dominated the Italian political
scene. All four parties in government in 1992 - Christian Democracy (DC), the Socialist
Party (PSI), the Social Democratic and the Liberal - later disappeared. The Democratic
Party of the Left, the Republican Party and the Movimento Sociale Italiano are the only
national expression of parties to survive [See the article Corrupção na Itália
(Corruption in Italy) published on website
<http://www.muco.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=483:corru
pcao-na-italia&catid=45:corrupcao-pelo-mundo>].
Just as happened in Italy it would be desirable to conviction and imprisonment of all
those involved in mega corruption that hit Petrobras and exclusion from national
politics of all political parties and party leaders involved in Lava Jato Operation.
*Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e

3. 3
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).