João Vaccari Neto

João Vaccari Neto
João Vaccari Neto, former treasurer of Brazil's Worker's Party)
Born	(1958-10-30) October 30, 1958 (age 66) São Paulo, Brazil
Occupation(s)	Banker and politician

João Vaccari Neto (born October 30, 1958, São Paulo) is a Brazilian banker and labor union leader. He is the Secretary of Finance and Planning of the Workers Party (PT) and was president of the cooperative known as BANCOOP (Housing Cooperative Bank of São Paulo). He is currently incarcerated in Pinhais near Curitiba.

Life

Vaccari Neto was born in São Paulo. He is most widely recognized for his involvement in Brazilian political scandals. He has been accused of participating in and even leading the Mensalão scandal and the BANCOOP case. He was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for his involvement in the Petrobras scandal called Operação Lava Jato.^[1]

He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Itaipu Binacional. In 2002, he was elected as an alternate senator^{[citation needed]} for São Paulo on the ticket headed by Aloizio Mercadante.

Conviction and incarceration

April 15, 2015 Vaccari was arrested for receiving "irregular donations" on behalf of the PT.^[2] On June 22, 2015 Vaccari was convicted of bribery, money laundering and criminal association, then sentenced to 15 years and four months in prison. He is incarcerated in the Complexo Médico-Penal [pt] prison in Pinhais near Curitiba.^[3][4] On June 27, 2017 the 8th panel of the federal court for the 4th region upheld his appeal^{[clarification needed]} of this conviction. Judge Sergio Moro, who had found him guilty in four other cases and sentenced him to a total of more than thirty years, had cited campaign donations to the PT from construction contractors that coincided very closely to successful bids on contracts with the state-owned oil company Petrobras.^[5]

Vaccari was convicted of passive corruption on May 18, 2016 and sentenced to nine years in prison. He was also charged with money laundering in that case but was acquitted on that count. Engineers Renato Duque [pt] and Pedro Barrusco [pt] were also implicated in the misallocation of R46,412,340, including R28 million in kickbacks. Moro found that although Vaccari did not himself receive the payment, his participation made it possible. Former minister José Dirceu and nine others were also found guilty. Dirceu was sentenced to 23 years and three months of imprisonment.^[6]

References

1. Jelmayer, Rogerio (2015-04-15). "Brazil Police Arrest Workers' Party Treasurer Joao Vaccari Neto". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
2. Rogerio Jelmayer; Jeffrey T. Lewis (April 15, 2015). "Brazil Police Arrest Workers' Party Treasurer Joao Vaccari Neto: Vaccari arrest related to allegations of corruption involving Petrobras". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 28, 2019.
3. Rizerio, Lara (2015-09-21). "Moro condena Vaccari a 15 anos de prisão e Duque a 28 anos no âmbito da Lava Jato - InfoMoney" [Moro condemns Vaccari to 15 years].
4. Kaniak, Thais; Dionísio, Bibiana (2015-09-21). "Vaccari e Duque são condenados por corrupção e lavagem de dinheiro". O Globo (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Globo Comunicação e Participações. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
5. "TRF-4 reverte decisão de Moro e absolve João Vaccari Neto" [TRF4 reverses decision of Moro and absolves João Vaccari Neto] (in Portuguese). O Globo. June 27, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
6. "Vaccari, ex-tesoureiro do PT, é condenado a 9 anos de prisão por corrupção" [Vaccari, former treasurer of the PT, is sentenced to 9 years in prison for corruption] (in Portuguese). UOL. May 18, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2017.