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Former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa dies at 68

Former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa died on Saturday (13), aged 68. The information was confirmed to CNN by Cassio Quirino, his lawyer, at CNN .

Costa was arrested by Lava Jato in 2014 and became the first whistleblower of the operation. He was sentenced to more than 70 years in prison in cases about Lava Jato, in Paraná. He responded freely.

Car wash

In the second phase of Lava Jato, in March 2014, Paulo Roberto Costa, former director of Refining and Supply at Petrobras, was the subject of a five-day temporary arrest warrant, accused of trying to destroy evidence about his alleged connection with the money changer. Alberto Youssef.

Arrested in São Luís (MA), Youssef was appointed by the PF as the head of a gang specialized in money laundering.

Three months later, by order of the then federal judge Sergio Moro, of the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, the former director of Petrobras was arrested again and had US$ 23 million in blocked accounts in Switzerland.

When Alberto Youssef was about to complete four months in prison in Curitiba, the Federal Police arrested two suspected of being assistants to the money changer: João Procópio de Almeida and Iara Godino da Silva. They were detained on the charge of being Youssef’s “oranges”, operating accounts that would be fed with resources diverted from Petrobras.

According to the investigations, the scheme involved Paulo Roberto Costa, who would have overpriced contracts with the state-owned company during the construction of the Abreu e Lima refinery, in Pernambuco.

As a result of the previous operation, the Federal Police executed 11 search and seizure warrants in Rio de Janeiro. Target of a coercive driving warrant that day, Marcelo Barboza Daniel, son-in-law of Paulo Roberto Costa, was traveling in the United States when he was wanted by police. From abroad, he made himself available to the courts to testify when he returned to Brazil.

Disabled by CVM

In 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) unanimously decided to disqualify former Petrobras directors Paulo Roberto Costa (Supply) and Renato Duque (Services) from working in publicly-held companies for 15 years for violating their duty of loyalty.

The two were convicted of having sponsored and voted for the approval of phases of the Abreu e Lima Refinery (Rnest) project, in Pernambuco, in exchange for undue advantages from construction companies to overprice the works, as revealed by Operation Lava Jato.

Costa also received a fine of R$500,000.

At the time, already convicted in the criminal sphere, the two could still appeal the administrative conviction to the National Financial System Appeals Council.

Source: CNN Brasil

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