Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos

Agência Pública/Intercept states that Lava Jato's first official visit to the United States took place on February 9 and 10, 2015, with prosecutors Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, Marcelo Miller and Deltan Dallagnol, who accompanied Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot and 'Aras himself' (from context, Vladimir Aras); the report says the visit was even covered in the Brazilian press. According to the report, there were meetings with the DOJ, the SEC, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · section 'Introducing the cooperating witnesses to the DOJ', paragraphs 'A milestone in the relationship...' and following · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: The report spells only 'Aras'; from context it is Vladimir Aras, of the PGR's International Cooperation Secretariat. The agenda said 'Dallagnol with Janot, Vladimir Aras, Carlos Fernando and Miller' (matches), but the source describes Dallagnol, Carlos Fernando and Miller as accompanying Janot and Aras. Ordinance or official trip report not opened.

According to Agência Pública, a report made by the Curitiba prosecutors and shared in the chats listed three objectives of the February 2015 mission: speed up the exchange of information in the Lava Jato cases; obtain priority in executing the international cooperation requests already sent; and create an environment favorable to cooperation by those under investigation, with a commitment from the American authorities not to prosecute those who signed agreements with the MPF. The report, again according to the article, concluded that the first two were achieved and the third was still under analysis in the U.S. The article adds that 'all signs indicate' that Dallagnol never obtained the concession, and that defense lawyers describe the DOJ agreements as decided case by case.

Excerpt: “criar e manter um ambiente favorável à colaboração de investigados”

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · same block, paragraphs following 'A milestone in the relationship' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Report not examined; described by the article. The assessment that the third objective was not obtained is an inference of the article.

In a chat of February 13, 2015, according to Pública, Dallagnol replied to Vladimir Aras, who had asked whether everything was fine with a DRCI (Ministry of Justice) adviser, that it was fine, but that he did not like the idea of the Executive seeing the task force's requests and knowing what was in them. The report reads the message as distrust of the DRCI and of the Dilma government.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · block after 'The contacts raised questions within the PGR' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: The political reading is the report's. Message not forensically examined nor confirmed by an official source in this version of the collection.

Agência Pública/Intercept reports that, starting Tuesday, October 6, 2015, a delegation of at least 17 Americans, including prosecutors linked to the DOJ and FBI agents, was at the MPF headquarters in Curitiba for four days: it received explanations about cooperating witnesses and met with lawyers for 16 cooperating witnesses who had signed agreements between late 2014 and mid-2015. According to the report, Dallagnol received the Americans on Tuesday (the 6th) with a one-hour general presentation of the investigations, and then each prosecutor presented his cooperating witnesses; Paulo Galvão covered Alberto Youssef, Paulo Roberto Costa and Augusto Mendonça Neto, and Roberson Pozzobon and Antonio Carlos Welter covered Pedro Barusco. The report says the mission left Curitiba on October 9, 2015.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · opening and section 'Introducing the cooperating witnesses to the DOJ' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Dallagnol is named by the source as the one who received the Americans and gave the general presentation. The text opens by talking about October 5 (Dallagnol's arrival in Curitiba), but places the Americans' arrival on Tuesday (October 6); Pública of December 2, 2025 confirms October 6-9, 2015. The task force's statement and Pública's question speak of 'October 6 and 9'. Itamaraty visa records (October 3-10) are another source (fonte).

Pública describes the delegation as 'led' by Patrick Stokes, then head of the DOJ's FCPA section (who left the post in 2016 and is now a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the firm that serves Petrobras in the U.S., according to the report). It also cites, from the DOJ, prosecutors Christopher Cestaro (later head of the FCPA unit) and Lorinda Laryea; from the FBI, George 'Ren' McEachern (head of the International Corruption Unit in Washington until December 2017) and agent Leslie Backschies (supervisor in the International Operations Division). Itamaraty documents, according to the report, show that the DOJ requested visas for prosecutors Derek Ettinger and Lorinda Laryea for meetings in Curitiba with Brazilian authorities and cooperating witnesses' lawyers, in order to gather additional evidence. According to the report, Mark Schweers (FBI) was already in the October 2015 delegation.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · section 'Introducing the cooperating witnesses to the DOJ' and passage 'Hiding the Americans' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Partial list: the report speaks of 'at least 17' and names only some. Roles as given by the report; not verified in an official American source. Derek Ettinger appears only in the Itamaraty document as described, not as a named member of the delegation. Pública of December 2, 2025 adds that Mark Schweers and Jeff Pfeiffer (FBI) obtained visas for Curitiba between October 3 and 10 (fonte). The sentence about Schweers having 'already accompanied the October 2015 delegation' appears in the section on July 2016.

According to Pública, late on October 6, 2015 (11:16 p.m.) Vladimir Aras notified Dallagnol on Telegram ('MSG DO MJ') that the Ministry of Justice had learned of the visit from Itamaraty when the Americans were already in Curitiba. The report reproduces an e-mail from the then head of the DRCI, Ricardo Saadi, with six questions to the MPF about the possible arrival of American authorities. The then minister José Eduardo Cardozo told the reporters that he had not been aware of the visit, that the Federal Police warned him, and that Janot replied to him that it was an 'exclusively non-official' activity, with an academic purpose.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · opening and section 'Hiding the Americans' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: DRCI e-mail and chats not examined. The statement about Janot is Cardozo's account to the reporters; there is no response from Janot in that article. Pública's question to the task force dates the DRCI's inquiry as 'April 7', an evident error for October.

According to Pública, after midnight on October 7, 2015 Dallagnol replied to Aras suggesting that the Ministry of Justice consult the DOJ because the Americans had asked for confidentiality, and suggested thinking before handing over the Americans' list, which could generate 'noise'; at 8 p.m. the same day, on reading Aras's draft e-mail, he asked again to remove the attached list, saying the Americans could use the information against the task force because of the size of the delegation and that it was enough to inform the home agencies, 'bc it doesn't include SEC'. Aras argued that he saw no problem in sending the names, but gave in. The report says that, in the e-mail to the DRCI, the visit was described as 'working meetings' and not 'investigative measures'.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · section 'Hiding the Americans' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Messages attributed by a report; no forensic examination reported in the article. The final text of the e-mail to the DRCI was not examined. The time of 8 p.m. is given in the source as 'às 8 da noite' (at 8 at night).

The report cites a message attributed to Patrick Stokes (DOJ) to then-prosecutor Marcelo Miller, about the trip to Curitiba: the DOJ press office would only confirm the fact without commenting on the investigation or the presence in Brazil, and the FBI would confirm its presence without commenting on the reason. According to the report, Dallagnol told the MPF press office to follow the Americans' confidentiality guidance.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · section 'Hiding the Americans' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Stokes's message read in a Portuguese translation in the report; translation not checked. According to the report, messages without the author's name come from Marcelo Miller's phone.

Agência Pública/Intercept concludes that, because international cooperation is not regulated by national law, the Lava Jato members 'exploited gray areas' that allowed the Americans to advance in the investigations, 'hiding this fact from the federal government'; according to the report, Dallagnol asked that the Americans' names not be given to the Ministry of Justice and Aras ended up giving in. This is the report's reading, contested by the task force and by Vladimir Aras (fonte).

Excerpt: “escondendo esse fato do governo federal”

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · opening paragraphs and section 'Hiding the Americans' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: The outlet's conclusion, not a court decision. The characterization as irregular is contested by the task force.

Response from the Curitiba task force to Pública's questions, published in the report: informal and direct contacts before a formal request are lawful; formalization is required for evidence-gathering measures; meetings with foreign authorities do not need formalization through the DRCI, only internal authorization; cooperating witnesses sought out foreign authorities directly, which the MPF encouraged; the federal government is a channel, not the responsible authority, and there is no duty to share the entire investigation. The task force said it had not received the data on the visits or the document cited. Vladimir Aras, in a statement, said that the prior meetings are part of the 'pre-MLAT' stage and that the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Police are not required to report them to the Executive. Ricardo Saadi (former DRCI) stated that informal and direct contact between authorities is permitted and that his e-mail was intended to make the DRCI available. The DOJ said it would not comment on the report.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · passages 'Contacted by Pública...', Aras's and Saadi's statements, and section 'Lava Jato's responses' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Institutional response from the task force, not signed by Dallagnol. There is no statement of his own about the visit in this report. Related (not duplicated): Leniency agreements and informal international cooperation and fonte.

According to Pública, on November 30, 2015 Dallagnol warned Aras that the Americans were already 'hearing cooperating witnesses', said the task force had no control over the hearings and explained the haste: with the DOJ already formally meeting with the cooperating witnesses' lawyers, the task force would lose strength to negotiate the division of the money the Americans recovered. Aras reacted with alarm at the possibility of trips without safe conduct and took the matter to Janot. On December 17, 2015, according to the report, Dallagnol told Aras that, during the visit, the team had been 'operating on autopilot', without knowing the scale of the consequences.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · section 'The US has the upper hand' and what follows · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Messages attributed by a report; see statements.

According to Pública (2020), in July 2016 a new DOJ delegation, this time with an MLAT, heard Nestor Cerveró and Paulo Roberto Costa in Rio (July 13-15) and, in Curitiba (July 14-21), among others, Alberto Youssef, Rafael Ângulo Lopez and Agosthilde Mônaco de Carvalho; the delegation included, according to the schedule document as described, Lance Jasper and Carlos Costa Rodrigues (SEC), DOJ prosecutors Kevin Gringas, Hector Bladuell, Davis Last, Gustavo Ruiz and Christopher Cestaro, interpreters and FBI agents. On the last day, according to the report, the delegation met from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with Dallagnol, Martello, Galvão, Pozzobon and Marcelo Miller to discuss the Odebrecht case.

Source: Como a Lava Jato escondeu do governo federal visita do FBI e procuradores americanos — Agência Pública / The Intercept Brasil, Mar. 12, 2020 · sections 'In 2016, DOJ prosecutors questioned...' and 'Pasadena Refinery in the crosshairs' · open original ↗

News report · full text examined · accessed on Oct. 25, 2026

Limitations: Schedule document not examined. 'Roberto Pozzobon' in the text is probably the source's error for Roberson Pozzobon. DOJ names as spelled by the report. Dallagnol is named as a participant only in the meeting on Odebrecht. The exact date of that meeting is the 'last day' within July 14-21; we assume July 21 from the stated range.