The possibility of imprisonment for Vale officers has significantly increased due to the disaster in Brumadinho (MG). According to experts, this is because, after the Mensalão and Lava-Jato operation, judges are more rigorous and feel more comfortable in taking precautionary measures, such as preventive arrests. André Fonseca, partner of the White-Collar Crime and Corporate Investigations area, said to Valor Econômico that if the president of Vale demonstrates that he had no direct participation in what caused the breach, because other employees took care of it directly, there would be no causal link to justify sentencing to prison. “But if the president also received the email with information about the risk of rupture, it will be possible for the prosecutor to say that the entrepreneur knew and failed to do anything to avoid the disaster,” he added.
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