Brazilian Court of Accounts acquits Dilma Rousseff in refinery case | The most important news and analysis in Latin America | DW

The Brazilian Court of Accounts acquitted former President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday (04/14/2021) in a lawsuit over the purchase of the Pasadena refinery, in the United States, by the state oil company Petrobras.

The case dates back to 2006, when Rousseff held the position of Minister of the Presidency in the government of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and chaired the Board of Directors of Petrobras, and for which she had her assets seized by the Justice.

This Wednesday’s decision was taken unanimously by the full court, made up of nine magistrates, who considered that Rousseff, as well as other former members of the Board of Directors, had no responsibility in the case.

“There is no reasonableness and proportionality in equalizing the responsibilities of those who acted with disloyalty with the others involved, whose bad faith was not demonstrated in these proceedings, nor in other instances in which the Pasadena case is being investigated,” the instructor highlighted in the trial of the case, the magistrate Vital do Rêgo, whose vote was accompanied by the other judges.

The purchase of the refinery by Petrobras, for almost 1,200 million dollars, occurred at the end of 2006 and was the target of multiple investigations in the framework of Lava Jato, the largest anti-corruption operation in the history of Brazil.

Petrobras bought half the capital of the US refinery for 360 million dollars from the Belgian company Astra Oil, which a year earlier had paid 42.5 million dollars for the entire plant.

The oil company had to disburse another 820 million dollars in 2012, with Rousseff already as president, for the other half of the capital as stated in a clause in the purchase contract.

Despite presiding over the Board of Directors of the state company, which approved the transaction in a single meeting and without the documents presented by the technicians citing two clauses harmful to the company, Rousseff (2011-2016) was not formally accused in the case .

In 2019, Petrobras concluded the sale of the Pasadena refinery after receiving 467 million dollars from the US company Chevron.

gs (efe, The Globe, Forum Magazine)

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