Lula vetoes penalty reduction for money laundering and expands cable theft punishment

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) vetoed on Tuesday (29) a device included by the congress in a bill that reduced the minimum penalty for crimes related to money laundering.

The veto reaches an amendment that diminished from 3 to 2 years the minimum penalty for concealment of the origin, location or movement of equity – conduct provided for in the money laundering law. The maximum penalty, on the other hand, would be expanded from 10 to 12 years.

The vetoed stretch had been inserted as a “jabuti” – when a theme foreign to the original text is added during the process – in a project that dealt with assets involving power cables and telecommunications.

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Lula’s decision follows the recommendation of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, which assessed that the proposal would weaken the legal framework to combat financial crime.

“The legislative change would represent a setback in the repression of high complexity crimes, with the potential to compromise investigations and facilitate impunity,” the government justified.

Infrastructure theft

Despite the veto to the cash laundering stretch, the president sanctioned the rest of the project, which hardens penalties for theft and theft of power cables, telephone wires, data transmission equipment and rail or subway materials. The increasingly common practice in urban areas compromises essential services and has caused billionaire losses to local concessionaires and governments.

With the new law, theft of these equipment is qualified, with penalties of 2 to 8 years in prison and fine – higher level than the simple theft, whose penalty goes from 1 to 4 years. Theft, when there is a violence or threat, will be aggravated: the time of imprisonment, before 4 to 10 years, can be increased by half, depending on the circumstances.

The reception of stolen equipment will also be more severe: from 3 to 8 years in prison and fine, compared to the current 1 to 4 years.

The sanctioned text still establishes tougher punishments for crimes committed during public calamity, such as floods or pandemics. In such cases, the penalties may be doubled. The new legislation also provides aggravating crimes that directly affect the functioning of public agencies and essential services, such as hospitals, schools or public transport systems.