Judge  delays Lavo Jato ruling and merges case with Panama Papers

The judge Second Liquidator of Criminal Cases, Baloisa Marquínez, ordered to accumulate, in a single file, two investigations for alleged money laundering: Lava Jato and Panama Papers.

The Lava Jato trial has already taken place, from June 26 to July 3; The Panama Papers was scheduled to take place at the end of the year: from November 13 to December 4, and, as an alternate date, January 15 to February 2, 2024.

Given the disparity in dates, all proceedings related to the Lava Jato file will be suspended, until the Panama Papers are at the same stage. In Lava Jato, Judge Marquínez had already accepted the corresponding term (30 days) to issue a sentence; that will no longer happen, because it is now on pause.

The reasons given by Judge Marquínez for accumulating the files are based on the “connectedness” factors between Lava Jato and the Panama Papers: the two share a judge (Marquínez), they are based in the same prosecutor’s office, the crime investigated is the same, most of the defendants are repeated in both cases and many facts are related to the actions of the same law firm, the now extinct Mossack Fonseca. In addition, in both cases, behaviors allegedly aimed at concealing and concealing funds that came from countries such as Germany, Argentina, and Brazil are perceived, as using for this purpose legal structures and companies that presented irregularities in their due diligence, the identity of their final beneficiaries and the movement of bank accounts.

Since the Lava Jato file started first and is more advanced, then the Panama Papers file will be attached to it.

As a legal argument, Marquínez cites article 1985, numeral 2, of the Judicial Code, which specifies that “related crimes are those committed by two or more people in different places or times”, it being reasonable to proceed in a single process.