A Boot Camp for Brazilian Anti-Corruption Troops

The joke that is going around is this.

Q: Why have the United States never suffered a coup?

A: Because they have no U.S. embassy to help plot one.

The prolific Brazilian commentator Luis Nassif parses a possible Cablegate case in point.

My translation. The original cable is here.

Wikileaks revealed a U.S. government document which shows that the Car Wash case and the labors of federal judge Sergio Moro suffered the influence of U.S. training agents who taught Brazilian professionals to combat “financial crimes and terrorism.” The report states that American citizens had influenced Brazilians to create a task force to handle a specific actual case and would provide outside advice “in real time.”

According to this communication, following the success of a seminar on “illicit financial crimes” promoted by the Bridge Project — financed by the U.S. — training courses were requested by Brazilian judges, prosecutors and police agents with an interest in deepening their knowledge of, for example, the most practical way to elicit revelations from those accused of money laundering and other types of witness.

Moro participated in the seminar as a lecturer in October 2009, explaining, according to a U.S. diplomatic telegram, “the 15 most frequently asked questions in money laundering cases before Brazilian courts.”

Preceding Moro at the event, former federal appeals judge Gilson Dipp gave a presentation of his own, “offering a panoramic view of the legislative and political history of Brazilian money laundering and illicit finance law.”

Dipp was later hired by the law offices defending executives of Galvâo Engineering in the Car Wash case, arguing before the Supreme Court that the plea bargain of Alberto Yousseff was illegitimate, given that the black market currency dealer had already signed a deal as part of Operation Banestado and had failed to comply with the rules of his plea when he committed new crimes.

“American lecturers discussed various aspects of investigation and legal procedure in cases of illicit finance and money laundering, including formal and informal international cooperation, the hiding and diversion of funds, evidentiary methods, pyramid schemes, plea deals, the use of direct interrogation, and suggestions on how to deal with NGOs suspected of being used for illegal transactions,” the document states, after noting the participation of Brazilian judges in the seminar.

One of the high points of the training event was “a simulated witness preparation and direct interrogation” attended mainly by Brazilians and of these “almost exclusively by Brazilians from the federal bench specializing in crimes against the national financial system and money laundering, established in 1998 along with anti-money laundering legislation. Specialized prosecutors and investigators would take their money laundering cases to

U.S. diplomats found the Brazilian law enforcement community less contentious regarding PATRIOT Actions than native diplomats and governing boliviariano-petistas …

TERRORISM BROUGHT TO THE FOREFRONT

«Brazilians Use the “T” Word — Successfully!» crow our boys in Brazil.

4. (SBU) Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism in S/CT,  Shari Villarosa, opened the conference with a keynote address on Illicit Finance and Terrorism. In most of post’s planning with its Brazilian counterparts, the traditional mantra has been to avoid using the word “Terrorism” and  instead use the less controversial term “Transnational Crime” as a euphemism for all activity that involves organized violence and threats. However, in her opening remarks, Deputy Coordinator Villarosa spoke directly about terrorism and the illicit financing of terrorism, emphasizing that illicit finance is a global problem and needs to be addressed in a global manner.

5. (SBU) Rather than challenging these assertions as often happens when dealing with Brazil,s Foreign Ministry or members of the Executive Branch, the judicial sector
representatives at the conference found the topic to be extremely interesting and important. In post-conference evaluations, the most frequently requested follow-on training was related to counterterrorism, clearly demonstrating that the federal judges, prosecutors, and other law enforcement professionals were less concerned with the political minefield around the term and genuinely interested in
learning how to better engage the judicial process in the fight against terrorism.

Trainers envision holding  Brazilian hands throughout the conduct of specific cases.

Ideally, the training should be longer-term and coincide with the formation of training task forces. Two large urban centers with proven judicial support for illicit financing cases, in particular Sao Paulo, Campo Grande, or Curitiba, should be selected as the location for this type of training.

Sérgio Moro’s jurisdiction is the federal court in Curitiba.

Then task forces can be formed, and an actual investigation used as the basis for training that would sequentially progress from investigation through the courtroom presentation and conclusion of the case. This would give the Brazilians actual experience in working on a long term proactive illicit financing task force, and allow access to U.S. experts for on-going guidance and support. Post can provide more detailed steps and a cost analysis [septel?].

Did this project ever move forward, as Esquerda Diário asks?

I am less impressed by the alleged tone of condescension than is my comrade …