This glossary contains Brazilian terms related to criminal or corruption investigations, and supporting concepts from politics, the law, government, criminology, and law enforcement.
This glossary is not a general or indiscriminate list of terms fromBrazilian Portuguese, and is limited in scope. Because this is a specialized glossary, the first meaning(s) listed for a term will be the one(s) related to topics within the scope of this glossary, even if that is not the most common meaning in the spoken or written language for the term in a more general context.
Words which present no particular issues of translation or understanding, such asgovernador ("governor"),investigação ("investigation"),operação ("operation") are generally not included. Words which may appear to be obvious on the surface, but which have specialized meanings in certain contexts, are included (e.g.,prisão: not just "prison", but also "arrest"; orrecurso: not just "resource", but also "appeal", "appellate"). Common expressions for governmental agencies or positions are included for convenience (Supremo Tribunal Federal), even if the translations are straightforward, as they come up frequently in definitions of less obvious terms.
There is one alphabetical list, withheadwords in Portuguese or English, and aliases, translations, or explanations given as appropriate. This glossary concerns meaning and usage inBrazilian Portuguese. To avoid constant repetition, where the wordPortuguese appears alone, it means Brazilian Portuguese.
a leniency agreement between a company and legal authorities. It's an agreement a company enters into with law authorities, to reduce their exposure to fines for criminal activity in exchange for something; typically an agreement to assist in investigations. Part of theAnti-Corruption Act.[1][2] Chapter 5 of the Anti-corruption Act provides the legal underpinning for companies to enter into leniency agreements with the authorities.[3] Similar todelação premiada in itsplea bargaining aspect, but a leniency accord deals with a company's assets not its employees.
a law enacted in 2014 targeting corrupt practices (pt:Lei anticorrupção (Brasil)) among business entities doing business in Brazil. It defines civil and administrative penalties, as well as the possibility of reductions in penalties for cooperation with law enforcement under a writtenacordo de leniência (Leniency agreement). See#Lei anticorrupção (Brasil). Aliases:Clean Company Act; Law no. 12.846/2013
Apartamento funcional
Executive apartment set aside in the capital, Brasília, by the government for the use of members of theChamber of Deputies while they are in the capital, typically half the week.[4][5]
the increased cost of doing business in Brazil based on in-country factors, such as administrative corruption, excessive bureaurocracy, dysfunctions in import-export operations, inefficiency in public services, and others. The concept derives from the more general one of "country cost"; see the article,Ease of doing business index.
aslush fund. Literally, "cashbox two", this is a repository of unrecorded funds not reported to the appropriate tax authorities, and typically used as a slush fund forbribery ormoney laundering operations.
the Penal Procedure Code of Brazil. The set of laws designed to regulate Brazil's criminal proceedings. It is under the exclusive jurisdiction of theFederal Government, through theNational Congress to legislate on criminal procedure. Usually abbreviatedCPP in Portuguese.
the act of demanding improper advantage (vantagem indevida for oneself or others, directly or indirectly, by someone in public office, either during their term or before or afterward if related to their function while in office.Penal codeArticle 316. One of several crimes that are considered a "crime against public administration".
A compulsory order to appear, to assist in an investigative or judicial proceeding, either as a victim, a witness, an expert, and so on. Not an arrest, but has the power of enforcement behind it, based onCPP. Has some features in common with a "material witness" in U.S. law. Compareprisão (1. "arrest") andprisão preventiva.
Translation note:Machine translation will often emit the expressioncoercive driving as part of the translation into English; this is *never* a correct translation for this phrase. There is no accepted expression in English that conveys the sense of the Portuguese term.
The current constitution is theBrazilian Constitution of 1988 (officially:Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988). Also known as theConstituição cidadã ("Citizen's Constitution") because of its birth in the process of the return to Democracy after the end of the period ofmilitary dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985).
literally, "active corruption".Corrupção ativa consists in the act of offering any kind of benefit or advantage (economic, or otherwise) to a public official, to cause them to perform an official act, or to prevent or delay them from performing such an act. The crime consists in the intent to offer the unfair advantage, regardless whether it actually occurs. It is governed by article 333 of thePenal Code, and is considered acrime against public administration. See alsovantagem indevida.
literally, "passive corruption". A crime committed by a public official, which consists in soliciting or receiving, for themselves or on behalf of someone else, an undue benefit (seevantagem indevida)), or a promise of such benefit. The term "passive" doesn't refer to initiation of a corrupt action, but who receives the benefit. For example, if a driver offers a cop money in order to avoid a ticket, and the cop accepts, the cop has committed passive corruption (and the driver has simultaneously committedactive corruption). If the cop suggests the bribe, it's still passive. (SeeCP Art. 317.) Considered a "crime against public administration".
Literally, a "crime against public administration". A group of crimes in theCódigo de Processo Penal (CPP; Penal Code) that are characterized by their distortion of public administration and which injuriously affect the legality, impartiality, morality, or efficiency of public administration. .
literally, "rewarded whistleblowing" (or, "rewarded informing"). The most common gloss for this in English is "plea bargain [agreement]". (also seen, much less frequently (about 10%), isleniency agreement, but seeacordo de leniência). A legal process by which a suspect is offered a specific reduced sentence prescribed by the law, in return for turning in accomplices, or aiding in investigations. Applies only toindividuals. The common name for this iscolaboração premiada. The concept is similar to aplea bargain agreement, which results in a reduced penalty (fine, prison time) in return for investigative assistance. Established in theanti-corruption Act of 2014.[6] Contrast:acordo de leniência, which applies only tojuridical persons.
Usage note: There is some fuzziness even in the Brazilian press concerning the use ofdelação premiada (which applies exclusively to people) andacordo de leniência (which applies to business entities, not people) and occasionally the wrong term is used. The confusion in the English language press is greater, partly because the legal concepts in the two countries are not identical, and "plea bargain" may be used for both terms. As a rule of thumb, if it's about reduction in monetary penalties for a company, it's a "leniency agreement"; if it's about a reduction in fines or prison time for an individual, that's more like a "plea deal" or "plea bargain".
Literally, an "unfolding". In the context ofOperation Car Wash, as inpt:Desdobramentos da Operação Lava Jato, it is anoffshoot. (Also seen, less often, arespin-off oroutgrowth to representdesdobramentos in English sources about Operation Car Wash). In the context of talking about one particularOperação, already named, it can be translated simply asOperation. Not to be confused with Operation Car Wash "phases" (fases) which is a different breakdown of investigations, numbered and named, starting with phase 1 in March 2014.
an illegal dollar wire transfer. A neologism in Portuguese; no stable English term has claimed primacy yet; several have been offered. It is the practice of trading dollars in thegray market for deposit in an institution abroad. This may or may not involve actual cross-border transfers of money. The practice is a crime under article 22 ofLei dos Crimes contra o Sistema Financeiro (Law concerning crimes against the Financial System). It is often used inmoney laundering schemes. Still a neologism in the Brazilian press, and often found inside double quotes, often with explanatory text following. In English, various calques and translations have been proposed, including "dollar-cable", "cable-dollar", and others, but usually very tentatively, and with double quotes.
a money dealer; black-market money dealer;[7] literally, "dollar-er" ("dollar-dealer"). Someone who buys and sells dollars on thegray market. They alsotransfer funds between countries on behalf of companies or individuals not authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil to perform exchange operations, or which are outside the official mechanisms of registration and control. While this may be legal in some contexts, in others it is an indicator of possiblemoney laundering ortax evasion activities. In this context, adoleiro is someone who converts currencies without authorization, or beyond limits allowed by law. See also:dólar-cabo. Expressions:
fraudulent misrepresentation. lit., "ideologically false"; often seen adjectivally asideológicamente falso ("ideologically false"). This is a type of fraud involving inclusion of false information in an otherwise valid document. This is defined in article 299 of thePenal code.Example: a doctor signs a certificate excusing someone from work who was not sick. The signature is real, the information in the document is false.[8][9]
lit., "materially false"; this is a type of fraud involving creation of a phony document. Also seen adjectivally asmaterialmente falso ("materially false"). This is defined in article 299 of thePenal code. Example: an employee creates a false affidavit excusing them or someone from work who was not sick, and forges the doctor's signature.[8][9] Contrast:#Falsidade ideológica. The key difference between the two, is that wherefalsidade material describes a forgery,falsidade ideológica describes a real document with false information.
A operação focou a parte do esquema que repassava dinheiro só para o PMDB porque a parte do PT, não envolvendopessoas com foro privilegiado, tramita na Justiça Federal do Paraná. The operation focused exclusively on that part of the scheme that involved money passed on to the PMDB; because the portion involving the PT was being processed in the Federal Court of Paraná since it didn't include individuals withforo privilegiado status.
It is a method of determining a jurisdictional question, namely what venue has jurisdiction over certain high public officials in certain penal actions, based on their position or function. Normally, most people in Brazil, if accused of certain crimes, start off in lower courts (primeira instância) and their cases may proceed to higher courts (segunda instânica) according to law. For a limited subset of people, namely those with theforo privilegiado status, they start right off in the higher courts. TheBrazilian Constitution specifies which officials haveforo privilegiado; the list includes the President of the Republic, Senators, Federal Deputies, State Deputies, ministers of State, Governors; and only while they still hold office. Seept:foro especial por prerrogativa de função for details.
Usage note: it's a peculiarity of Brazilian terminology surrounding judgeships, that judges in courts of different degrees or levels (grau de jurisdição) are known by different honorific titles, depending on what level they are in the hierarchy of thejudicial branch. The termjuiz is used for judges of thefirst instance. See also:Desembargador (2nd instance), andMinistro (3rd instance).
2. court.
3. referee.
Juiz federal
A judge of thefirst instance in the common Federal Justice system (Justiça Federal comum) who deals with legal cases involving the Union (União) or its federal entities.
legislative branch (lit. "legislative power"; legislative authority). One of the three branches of thefederal government ordained in article 1 of theConstitution, consisting of the National Congress, is exercised by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Each state of the Union is represented by three Senators of the Republic, elected by majority vote, and the seats in the Chamber of Deputies are divided according to the population of each state, and the deputies elected byproportional vote.
2. In the plural, "poderes públicos" may have a different meaning: public authorities, official authority; similar to the non-specific sense of "the authorities" in English.
Roughly, "preventive detention", but not exact equivalents.Prisão preventiva is a pre-trial, precautionary detention defined byCPP §311–316. Not to be confused withsentença (post-trial sentencing). The Englishpreventive detention is broader in scope; the Portuguese one may be more like pre-trialremand.
A type of precautionary detention, which may be used in the investigation of a serious crime. A "temporary pre-trial detention". A 1989 law replaced the formerprisão por averiguação (investigatory detention) which was found to be contrary tofundamental rights under the 1988 charter. Only used in certain high crimes where it might impede the investigation if the subject were not detained, and where they have no fixed address or their identity cannot be established.
1. An appeal to a court. An instrument to request alteration of a prior court decision to a court of the same or higherinstance, on the same case. Expressions:
entrar com um recurso: file an appeal
_____de recurso: appellate _____
2. (in the plural)recursos: funds. Expressions:
desvio de recursos – diversion of funds
3. In contexts outside of law or finance: the primary meanings ofrecurso are "resource", "feature".
literally, "bribery section", or "bribery department". This is a slang term or nickname forOdebrecht S.A.'s Structured Operations Division (Setor de Operações Estruturais), because it was that department within the company that was responsible for managing and paying kickbacks and bribes.[11][12][13][14] Usage note: There isn't sufficient usage in English sources to have settled on one term for this, but "bribery department" is present in a BBC report.[15]
Sítio de Atibaia
lit., "the Atibaia site". known in English as the "Atibaia case" or "Atibaia site", and other terms. In context after a first use, the property is also referred to as the "ranch", the "house", the "farmhouse", the "case", the "site case", etc.; and in Portuguese, sometimes as the "sítio Santa Bárbara". "O sítio de Atibaia" is the name given by the press to a property inAtibaia, a town in the interior ofSão Paulo state, which was central to the second conviction ofPresident Lula inOperation Car Wash, which increased his sentence from 13 to 17 years. The formal owner of the property was Fernando Bittar, ex-colleague ofFabio Luis Lula da Silva [pt] (Lulinha), son of Lula. It was seized by the judge as part of Lula's sentence.[16][17][18]
Overbilling, especially on a government project with corrupt intent. The Federal Police indicated in a 2010 report that around R$700 million ($180 million) was overbilled in 300 public works projects, and that of every 100 Reals spent, on average R$29 were overbilled.[19]
Superior Court of Justice, also known as theSTJ. The highest appellate court in Brazil for non-constitutional questions of federal law. Justices in STJ (as in otherSuperior Courts) are called "minister" not "justices" or "judges"; not to be confused however, with ministers from the executive branch.
Regional Federal Courts. There are six regional federal courts, each covering several Brazilian states. They are established by articles 107 and 108 of theConstitution. Together withFederal judges, the six TRFs make up theJustiça Federal (Federal Courts), which is part of thePoder Judiciário (judiciary branch). Each TRF has seven (or more) judges of thesecond instance named by thePresident, who hold court around the region of their jurisdiction, using local facilities. See for example,TRF-4. abbreviation: TRF.
Illicit funds. Literally, "undue advantage" is a literal translation ofvantagem indevida, from a type of corruption calledRecebimento de vantagem indevida: literally, "Receipt of undue advantage" (or "illicit", "improper", "unfair", "unjustifiable", etc.) advantage (or "benefit", "profit", "gain", etc.) This is a form of corruption, either active (corrupção ativa) or passive (corrupção passiva) involving payment or receipt of improper advantage (economic or otherwise) or the promise of it, from someone in public office, or before or after their term of office if related to their function while in office. The term comes up in several places in theCPP, including article 217 (regardingcorrupção passiva), article 316 (concussão), article 333 (corrupção ativa), and others.[20][21]
Usage note: Since there isn't an exact equivalent in common law, and the noun phrase can be awkward in certain contexts, rewording it as an adverbial phrase might work better in some cases: "X illicitly profited from", or "...earned illegal gains from", etc.
^abcdeThisheadword has a significant likelihood of being mistranslated when using automatic translation.Machine translation can have difficulty with individual words or expressions for many reasons, includingfalse friends,false cognates,literal translation,neologisms,slang,idiomatic expressions and other unrecognized compounds,words with multiple meanings, words withspecialized meanings in certain knowledge domains different from a common meaning of a word in a more general context, and other reasons. These issues can be difficult for human translators as well. Some expressions in Brazilian law, criminology, or government have no exact equivalent in English, because the legal, penal, and administrative systems are not the same. In some cases, no brief translated expression in English is possible, as it would either be opaque, or misleading.
^abEscola Brasileira de Direito (20 July 2018)."Qual a diferença entre falsidade material, falsidade ideológica e falsidade pessoal?" [What is the difference between material falsehood, ideological falsehood and personal falsehood?].JusBrasil (in Portuguese). Archived fromthe original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved2020-02-13.Material falsehood is that [crime of falsification] by means of which the perpetrator creates a false document or changes the content of a true document. The document is materially false. The falsification occurs via forgery (pretending, simulating, disguising, falsifying in order to disguise its authenticity). ... Ideological falsehood ... is characterized by false content written into the creation of a real document.A falsidade material é aquela [crime de falsidade] por meio da qual o agente cria um documento falso ou altera o conteúdo de um documento verdadeiro. O documento é materialmente falso. A falsificação o corre mediante contrafação (fingimento, simulação, disfarce, falsificação de modo a iludir sua autenticidade). ... A falsidade ideológica... configura-se pelo falso conteúdo posto quando da feitura de um documento verdadeiro.
^"funcional".Michaelis On-line. São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos. 2020.
^Esposito, Ivan Richard; Pordeus León, Lucas (15 April 2017)."Setor de propinas da Odebrecht pagou R$ 10,6 bilhões entre 2006 e 2014" [Odebrecht's bribery department paid R$10.6 billion between 2006 and 2014].Agência Brasil (in Portuguese). EBC. Retrieved2019-02-11.The former director of the so-called bribery department said that any executive responsible for an Odebrecht project could request the funds to get the project going.O ex-diretor do chamado setor de propinas disse que cada executivo responsável por obras da Odebrecht podia solicitar o recurso para fazer as obras andarem.
^Folha Política (5 September 2016)."E-mails mostram que Marcelo Odebrecht controlava o 'setor de propinas'" [E-mails show that Marcelo Odebrecht controlled the 'bribery department'].JusBrasil (in Portuguese). Retrieved2019-02-11.E-mails seized by Operation Car Wash at the Odebrecht Group headquarters in June 2015 reinforced the evidentiary exhibits showing the participation of the outgoing president of Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht with the Structured Operations Division – a department that took care of the contractor's kickbacks and slush fund payments, in the corruption scheme discovered at Petrobras.E-mails apreendidos pela Operação Lava Jato na sede do Grupo Odebrecht, em junho de 2015, reforçaram o rol de provas da participação do presidente afastado do Marcelo Bahia Odebrecht com o Setor de Operações Estruturadas – departamento que cuidava dos pagamentos de propina e caixa 2 da empreiteira, no esquema de corrupção descoberto na Petrobrás.
^Oro Boff, Salete; Borges Fortes, Vinícius; Zanatta Tocchetto, Gabriel (16 July 2018). "XIII Proteção de Dados e Práticas de Corrupção: Uma Analise do Sistema de ERP no Caso de Odebrecht [Data Protection and the Practice of Corruption: a Systems Analysis of ERP in the Odebrecht Case]".Propriedade intelectual e gestão da inovação: entre invenção e inovação (in Portuguese). Erechim, Rio Grande do Sul: Editora Deviant. p. 284.ISBN978-85-532-4014-2.Only the employees of the Structured Operations Division, also called the Bribery Division by the media, ...Apenas os funcionários do Setor de Operações Estruturais, também chamado de Setor de Propinas, pela mídia, ...
^"Odebrecht adquiriu banco para propina, diz delator" [Odebrecht acquired a bank for kickbacks, says informer].UOL (in Portuguese). 2016-06-20.The Department of Structured Operations—official name of the bribery center of the company, according to Operation Car Wash.[O] Departamento de Operações Estruturadas --nome oficial da central de propinas da empreiteira, segundo a Lava Jato...
^Pressly, Linda (22 April 2018)."The largest foreign bribery case in history". BBC News. Retrieved2019-02-11.The company's bribery department, known by the rather prosaic name of Division of Structured Operations, managed its own shadow budget.
