BRASILIA: More than $10,000 of cash confiscated from ex-billionaire Eike Batista as part of an insider trading case is missing, the latest twist in a case where a judge has come under criminal investigation after driving one of the ex-billionaire’s luxury cars.
Officials detected that 27,000 reais ($8,639), $443 and 1,000 euros ($1,083) seized from Batista last month are gone, an appeals court in Rio de Janeiro said in a statement Monday. Police seized more than 90,000 reais as part of a raid last month, according to information on the federal police’s website.
The court is proceeding with a probe against Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza after finding undisclosed “evidence” in an inquiry, it said in a separate statement the same day. The judge surrendered his passport to court authorities, it said.
Souza didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment.
A symbolic trial in Brazil’s fight against capital market crimes is being contaminated by anomalies, said Leonardo Theon de Moraes, head of corporate affairs at Sao Paulo-based law firm Theon de Moraes & Britto Sociedade de Advogados.
“This is shameful for Brazil’s judicial system,” he said by telephone from Sao Paulo. “This is a symbolic case and there is a lot of pressure from the media.”
The evidence will be used in administrative and criminal procedures against the judge and there are measures already in place, the court said in the statement, declining to specify as the investigation is conducted in secrecy.
