The Economist: A queda de um oportunista

"MANY bankers may be worried about whether some fancy product dreamed up during the bubble years might yet lead to a visit from the police. Daniel Dantas, a financier who has profited by operating at the opaque place where business and government meet in Brazil, has been opening the door to find the police outside for much of the past decade. On December 2nd he was convicted of a less sophisticated crime: trying to bribe police officers. Mr Dantas, who has acquired great notoriety in Brazil, was fined 12m reais ($5m) and sentenced to ten years in prison. He has appealed against his conviction. (...)

Mr Dantas’s lawyers accuse the police of fabricating evidence and the judge of bias. The investigation brought widespread complaints that police wiretapping is out of control. The policeman who led the probe, Protógenes Queiroz, has been suspended. He accuses Mr Dantas of mounting a campaign through the media to discredit him.

Justice in Brazil is marred by clogged courts and interminable appeals. Big trials such as this one are often fought through the press before fizzling out. Tarso Genro, the justice minister, says that the trial of Mr Dantas shows that the institutions of justice are now functioning properly. It is too soon to know if he is right." (Fonte:The Economist)