Questions/Answers

According to the international media and verifiable sources, the “Car Wash Operation” is the largest ongoing anti-corruption investigation in Brazilian history. Started in 2008, the name “Car Wash” was chosen because the illicit payments were made at a Gas Station/Car Wash location, which became a metaphor for washing away corruption in Brazil and eventually in other Latin American countries. The objectives of the initiative included anti-corruption investigations, ending money laundering in Brazil and abroad, promoting efficient, effective and accountable institutions, re-establishing trust in oversight institutions and in the Judiciary, promoting the recovery of stolen assets so that they could be re-invested in social causes at an unprecedented scale. The “Car Wash” Operation also introduced innovative investigative procedures based on awarded collaboration, whistle blowing protection and international collaboration between the Brazilian Government and financial institutions in more than 50 other countries. Another objective was to change the previous culture of corruption impunity, in response to popular demand. In one city alone (Curitiba) 347 people have been charged with crimes such as corruption, money laundering and organized crime - 140 of them have been sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison. Several of these people are very powerful politicians and entrepreneurs.

The “Car Wash Operation” introduced new policies, practices and structures resulting in significant change: for the first time, powerful corrupt politicians and entrepreneurs were actually arrested and became accountable for corruption and collusion. The new practices included whistleblower protection, awarded collaboration of corrupted accomplices, new mechanisms to access financial information about public expenditures, new investigative procedures, new codes of ethics and conduct, enhanced transparency, awareness-raising of civil servants, and other distinctively new approaches that managed to change a previous “culture of corruption” existing in Brazil into a new accountability environment which was internationally acknowledged due to its scale and results.

Corruption is identified in the 2030 Agenda as a key factor causing violence, insecurity and injustice, together with poor governance and illicit financial flows. The “Car Wash Operation”, has directly tackled corruption, illicit financial flows and poor governance at unprecedented levels in Latin America. The initiative has had impact in most 17 Sustainable Development Goals. More directly, it addressed targets 16.4 (reduced illicit financial flows, strengthened recovery and return of stolen assets and tackled organized crime) 16.5 (substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms) and 16.6 (develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels).

It has been proven, particularly within the Latin American context, that vulnerable groups are the ones most seriously affected by corruption. As a result of an unprecedented fiscal crisis in Brazil, which is linked to varying degrees of corruption, the Brazilian State had been unable to offer public services as necessary to vulnerable groups, mainly in health and education. The Federal Public Prosecutor Ministry signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education to utilize funds recovered through the Lava Jato Operation to invest in over 1,200 public schools in Rio de Janeiro. Another agreement recovered US$ 65 million for pension funds of retired older persons who were former civil servants. This procedure is also being applied to health initiatives, as official statistics by the Confederation of Brazilian Municipalities confirm the loss of over 26% of vacancies in public health centers from 2008 to 2018 affecting particularly women and children. In total, Lava Jato has made agreements to recover some US$ 3.5 billion, representing a significant impact in two distinct areas: stopping the loss of public funds due to corruption and reinvestment of recovered assets in public services, mostly for vulnerable groups.

The innovative investigative framework was based on “award collaboration” at scale, with strategic stages resulting in more than 1000 search warrants and 250 prison terms executed, intense international cooperation (more than 500 requests for cooperation with at least 35 countries) and a social media strategy emphasizing transparency and support from civil society. State-of-the-Art Information and Communication Technology was used in over 2500 lawsuits and legal actions, counting on a unique database with more than 30 million records on financial operations alone, totaling more than US$ 500 billion currently under investigation. The initiative was already successfully replicated in Brazil and abroad.

The Car Wash Operation is original. It follows the features of the Brazilian judicial system, which separates the public prosecution powers, investigations by the Federal Police and the actions of Federal Judges who reinforced the rule of law by looking at concrete evidence found by investigations, while strictly following Constitutional procedures. This degree of judicial impartiality was important to obtain the massive support of civil society. The initiative has been originally inspired by the “Clean Hands” Operation held in Italy, but retained unique original features in its design, investigation, sequencing, social communication strategy and political impartiality.

Yes, the initiative became international news and resulted in requests for cooperation from more than 35 countries. The transferability potential was due to an effective diagnostic of “collusion capitalism” existing in Brazil/Latin America. It responded to a broad Regional call for anti-corruption reforms. The initiative quickly spread to all States in Brazil, across the entire political party spectrum. The collaboration from one specific contractor alone indicted 415 politicians from 26 political parties. The initiative was extended to investigations in at least 10 other Latin American countries, at their request, placing 14 former Presidents of six of these countries under investigation.

The Car Wash Operation was implemented with existing human and financial resources provided by the Brazilian Federal budget approved by the National Congress for the usual operations of the Federal Police (equivalent to the FBI in the USA) and the Judiciary system in Brazil. The difference was made by the courage of specific Judges (many suffered countless anonymous life threats), diagnostic and investigative methodologies, strategic sequencing of operations, and strong support by the media and public opinion.

The initiative is sustainable in economic terms because it utilizes regular national budgetary resources, resulting in the recovery of stolen assets far in excess of the amounts invested. Concerning social sustainability, agreements between the Federal Prosecution Ministry and line Ministries such as the Ministry of Education allowed for the reinvestment of funds recovered in the maintenance of more than 1200 public schools (as mentioned above in question 4). “Car Wash” also reimbursed more than US$ 180 Million for payments to elderly retired people, whose contributions had been stolen. The initiative is sustainable in environmental terms as it created an opportunity cost for digitizing and updating the archives of the Federal Police, thus promoting a “paperless” approach. Every 120 pounds of recycled paper saves a medium-sized tree, which confirms the fact that the Car Wash Operation has already “saved” a forest.

Yes

Yes, in view of its importance, visibility and scale the “Car Wash Operation” has been constantly evaluated by the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry as a matter of routine for all operations involving the Federal Police and Judiciary institutions. In addition, it has been independently evaluated by opinion polls promoted by the media, such as the Globo G1 in partnership with Vox Pop Labs of Canada, which has received over 500.000 responses confirming that more than 80% of Brazilians support “Lava Jato”. The initiative has also received international awards from Transparency International (2016), from the International Association of Prosecutors, among others.

The indicators used by the Brazilian Federal Public Ministry include the number of investigations opened and successfully concluded, number of arrests, reports on concrete evidence gathered by the Federal Police, Court records, financial amounts recovered from off-shore accounts, financial amounts returned to public institutions (funds returned to the Brazilian Oil Company, Petrobras, the largest public company in Brazil, were of the order of US$ 680 million as of October 2018). Moreover, the most significant indicator was that powerful corrupt politicians and rich entrepreneurs, including a former President, former President of Congress, former Governors and Senators were arrested following due process.

The evaluations were widely disseminated by the media, which provided an important feedback mechanism to grant public support to the initiative. When powerful politicians and entrepreneurs began to be arrested, there was strong reaction from them trying to misrepresent Car Wash as “political persecution”. The evaluations based on concrete evidence and the favorable public opinion were an important element to support the sustainability of the operation, which is now considered irreversible by the Brazilian public, by the Judiciary, being fully supported by the Brazilian Government: by the current administration and by the next administration, which begins on 1st January 2019.

The “Lava Jato” Operation could not have been successful without stakeholder engagement and strong public support. The scale of demonstrations demanding anti-corruption reforms was unprecedented in Brazilian History. In 2016 the Federal Chief Prosecutor of Brazil, Mr. Rodrigo Janot, stated: "Society is deeply engaged in this struggle, as evidenced by the street demonstrations and by more than two million signatures in support of the 10 measures against corruption currently being discussed in the National Congress as a bill of popular initiative". Mr. Janot also added that “Operation Lava Jato will not "save Brazil" from corruption without popular participation. This is the "largest and deepest" anti-corruption investigation in the country's history. However, the end of the misappropriation of public money does not depend only on prosecutors and judges, but mainly on continued public engagement and support”.

Key lessons learned can be grouped in four areas: 1) Methodology for the recovery of stolen assets currently amounting to US$ 3.5 billion. The amount returned from off-shore accounts is already 20 times what Brazil had recovered before the “Lava Jato” Operation. 2) Reinvestment of recovered funds into social initiatives such as public schools and pension funds. 3) Significant change in mindsets at societal level from a previous “culture of impunity”, in response to public demand. 4) Development of innovative anti-corruption methodologies being transferred to other countries. The further dissemination of these methodologies/lessons learned will further improve the initiative.