Ex-president of Petrobras is sentenced to 7 years and 9 months in prison

TRF reduces sentence, but maintains conviction of former Petrobras president Aldemir Bendine. The sentence dropped from 11 years to 7 years and 9 months.

The 8th Panel of the Federal Regional Court (TRF) of the 4th Region, based in Porto Alegre, decided this Wednesday, June 19, to reduce from 11 years to 7 years and 9 months in prison the sentence of the former president of Petrobras and Banco do Brasil Aldemir Bendine, in one of the processes of Operation Car Wash.

The collegiate accepted an appeal filed by Bendine's defense and acquitted him of the crime of money laundering, but maintained the sentence for passive corruption. According to investigations, Odebrecht would have paid BRL 3 million in bribes to obtain benefits in a credit operation for one of the group's companies, in 2015.

According to the lawsuit, the undue advantage would have been requested during Bendine's tenure at Banco do Brasil and paid when he took over as president of the state oil company.

When analyzing the case, the collegiate understood that the actions of the accused did not constitute acts of money laundering. The defense maintained that there is no evidence of Bendine's participation in the request for advantages and that the alleged transfer of funds did not constitute a crime of laundering.

Bendine was condemned in March 2018 by the then judge Sergio Moro, responsible for the Lava Jato processes in Curitiba. In April, he was released following a decision by the Second Panel of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

With the decision, Bendine's preventive detention was replaced by precautionary measures, such as appearing in court when called, banning him from leaving the country, handing over his passport and banning him from maintaining contact with the other people investigated in the case.

Bendine was pre-trial detained at the Pinhais Medical-Penal Complex, located in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, since July 2017.

Bendine is the only former president of Petrobras to be the target of a Lava Jato lawsuit. He assumed the presidency of Banco do Brasil in April 2009, at the invitation of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The good results in the bank's management made him gain the confidence of then president Dilma Rousseff.

Bendine was appointed to command Petrobras in February 2015, replacing Graça Foster, with the mission of recovering the state-owned company.

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