Judges of the 9th Chamber of Criminal Law of the TJ of São Paulo uphold the decision of the judge of Bauru, within São Paulo, in a money laundering, embezzlement and conspiracy action against former directors of a real estate company
The judges of the 9th Section of Criminal Law of the Court of Justice of São Paulo have ordered the release of up to 20% of the seized assets from three defendants for the payment of legal costs. The decision was taken on the basis of paragraph 2 of article 24-A of law no. 8.906/94 (Statute of the Advocacy).
The Court rejected the appeal of the state prosecutor’s office against the first instance decision – IV Criminal Court of Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo – which led to the release of the valuables.
The public prosecutor argued that compliance with the request, in the first instance, would be undue, “since the seized money has an illegal origin, in addition to the fact that the appellants have other sources of remuneration”.
The case refers to an investigation into deviations in the Housing Company of Bauru, from 2007 to 2019. The prosecution charges the defendants, former directors of Cohab, with money laundering, criminal association and embezzlement.
Judge Maria de Fátima dos Santos Gomes, rapporteur, did not accept the prosecution’s argument. “One cannot ignore the existence of vehement evidence that the assets accumulated by the defendants constitute the use of criminal activities that are the subject of criminal proceedings that are being processed by this court, since the family nucleus, from what can be concluded in summary cognizance, did not have lawful income that could provide him with the patrimonial evolution he experienced”, highlighted Fátima.
The judge underlined that “there is however no space in the current legislation for any discussion about the origin of the assets, at least in order to prevent the release of the assets that the defense intends”.
Fátima Gomes stated that the rule of article 24-A of the law n. 8.906/94, inserted by the Law n. 14.356, of June 2, 2022, “is imperative, resulting in the release to the lawyer of up to 20% of the client’s assets, for the purpose of paying the fees and expenses incurred with the defence, against a universal block of assets, resulting by a court order”.
In the present case, the judicial bond was applied to all the defendants’ assets. “Therefore, the legal order, which is very clear, leaves the court with no other alternative than the expected release”, underlined the speaker.
It pointed out that «legal expenses are of an alimony nature, pursuant to article 85, §14 of the code of civil procedure».
The lawyer Leonardo Magalhães Avelar, who represents the defendants, said that ‘the decision of the Court of Justice is an important paradigm to prevent the financial suffocation caused by the blocking of the universality of the defendant’s assets in the criminal proceedings’.
“Legislation that allows release is a binding, imperative rule and there is no room for any interpretative dialectic,” said Avelar.
Source: Terra
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