FCPAméricas Blog
Views from Brazil on the Fight Against Corruption
10.05.2012
With the permission of the author, FCPAméricas offers excerpts from a recent article by attorney Leonardo Machado of Machado Meyer Sendacz Opice law firm in Brazil.
“Many important achievements have been made with the arrival of the 21st Century [in Brazil]. Among them, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games represent a vote of confidence from the international community, showing it believes that Brazil is capable of delivering a global event. These events will be real tests in measuring to what extent the country is prepared to leave the status of an emerging and supporting nation to take on a more important role on the global stage.”
“Brazilians are making things happen. We are asserting our presence worldwide, as major businesspeople, scientists, and politicians; it has been a long time since the only Brazilians of international recognition were famous soccer players.”
“There is only one problem that can prevent this long awaited future, the future that we hope for, from materialising. In fact, it is much more than a problem, because generally there is no solution for it. Nobody has invented a definite cure for the social cancer that affects humanity. Unfortunately, corruption is a reality in Brazil, as it is in the other countries that make up the BRICS.”
“It seems that major advances lie ahead with the judgment of the Mensalão case, which began a few weeks ago and is expected to drag on for a few months. It speculates that this may be the most emblematic corruption scandal the country has witnessed in recent history, since it involves various well-known politicians from the local stage, businesspeople, bankers and some probable laranjas (an expression describing those used as a front in the crimes committed). Up until now, five of the 40 defendants have already been convicted of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement, including a former president of the Chamber of Deputies who is currently being compelled to renounce his candidacy for mayor of the city situated in Larger São Paulo for the imminent elections taking place in October.”
“[A]s a famous Brazilian politician observed in his book of memoirs launched as a tribute to his 80th birthday, the changes currently taking place in society occur through a process of accumulation, and are no longer the result of an abrupt rupture as occurred in the past . . . This is what is happening today in the Brazilian legal framework, which since the 1990s has undergone changes that have greatly built up the hope of Brazilians. Even though numerous cases have been discovered and investigated in this period, it is rare to see people and corporations who resort to dubious measures convicted, due to gaps in the legislation. In order to align the Brazilian legal system with the international trends and anxieties of the modern age, Law no. 12.683/12 was published on 10 July this year, which altered Law no. 9.613/98 to make the criminal prosecution of money laundering crimes in Brazil more efficient, despite this new law being controversial and already finding itself the object of a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court to declare it as unconstitutional.”
“In addition, within the following months Draft Bill no. 6.826/10 should be approved, with the purpose of introducing a new concept in Brazil that intends to fight against corporate impunity, to the extent that companies involved in acts of corruption will be accountable for the acts of their employees and representatives, similar to that which is happening in the FCPA case.”
“For hundreds of years there has been a practice of corruption; today the practice needs to be the fight against it. . . [I]t is important to consider the harm that corruption is causing society as a whole, before signing and illegally entering into a contract by means of a bribe payment made to corrupt public authorities.”
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© 2013 Matteson Ellis Law, PLLC
Post authored by Matteson Ellis, FCPAméricas Founder & Editor
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