Brazil Police Dissolve Special Team Investigating Corruption

Federal prosecutors in Brazil in charge of the corruption investigation Operation Car Wash, which uncovered possible wrongdoing by President Michel Temer and hundreds of other politicians, criticized the decision of the Federal Police to eliminate a special team dedicated to investigating the case.

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The group investigating the largest corruption scandal in Brazil’s history will be disbanded and the officers placed within a larger team dedicated to the fight against corruption in general. They will also have smaller workloads.

According to the Attorney General's office, the dissolution of the working group will make it more difficult for the police to discover connections between the hundreds of people under investigation.

"The integration, announced after a reduction of the number of agents to less than half, is detrimental to the Operation Car Wash investigations and makes it difficult for them to continue with the efficiency with which they were developed until recently," the Attorney General's office said in a statement Thursday.

The announcement comes as police presented to the Attorney General what they described as evidence that President Michel Temer accepted and gave bribes. They also cricicized the government for not allocating sufficent funds to their budget for essential tasks, like the commissioning of passports. 

Temer faces possible suspension and impeachment if the Lower House of Congress and the Supreme Court approve a trial based on the corruption charges presented against him.

Opposition lawmakers have criticized the government and warned that Temer and his aides could find ways to block the investigation by the Federal Police. 

The prosecutor’s office said the lack of available investigators leaves a list of pending issues and no possibilities to open new lines of investigation in corruption cases.

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"Federal Police personnel in Operation Car Wash, drastically reduced with the current government, are not adequate for the demand,” they said in a statement. 

“Today, the number of cases and investigations is limited by the number of investigators available.”

As part of Operation Car Wash, more than 80,000 documents have been retrieved, over 21 million financial transactions have been traced and at least 280 people have been charged with corruption or money laundering, according to the Attorney General's office. More than US$3 billion has been recovered because of the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Police justified their decision by saying that the measure is intended to “prioritize even more investigations with greater potential for damage to the public treasury, as it allows an increase in specialized personnel in the fight against corruption and money laundering and facilitates the exchange of information."