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opinion

Robert Rotberg is the Fulbright Distinguished Professor of International Relations at the University of Sao Paulo and the author of the forthcoming The Corruption Cure: How Leaders and Citizens Can Combat Graft

If Judge Sergio Moro and his judicial colleagues are able to continue to try cases without political interference, the carefree days of Brazil's corrupt politicians may be numbered.

Mr. Moro, ably supported by the Brazilian Federal Police and aggressive prosecutors, is pursuing a lengthy trail of influence peddling, outright graft, and systematic abuse of public office. One of his goals is to end the impunity that Brazilian politicians of all kinds, at all levels, have long enjoyed. Only if he succeeds will Brazil begin to reject its long tolerance of peculation and chicanery in politics.

Brazilians of many classes and backgrounds welcome the crusade against corruption that Mr. Moro leads. In recent months they have taken to the streets in Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and other cities to protest against special legislation being considered by the Brazilian congress to curb Mr. Moro and to grant its members special immunity from prosecution. Deltan Dallagnol, the chief prosecutor working closely with Mr. Moro, suggested last week that the already massive load of cases of corruption that he and his team were investigating could quickly double in number.

Mr. Moro presides over the so-called Lava Jato (Car Wash) combination of cases. It began inconspicuously in the forecourt of a gas station and car wash in Brasilia when black market currency dealers were caught clandestinely exchanging cash. At first, the police and the prosecutors believed in 2014 that they had uncovered a comparatively limited case of illegal money laundering. But then they realized that the supposed money laundering was part of a complex case of wild corruption centred on Petrobras, Brazil's wealthiest company and one of the world's largest petroleum exploitation and distribution firms. Petrobras is mostly state-controlled.

Unravelling the tentacles of Lava Jato led federal police investigators to Petrobras directors who had been appointed by the leaders of Brazil's major political parties and who had been arranging contracts between Petrobras and Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez, Brazil's very largest engineering and construction firms, to build drilling platforms, worker housing, and much more. The last two concerns were happy to pad their bids by 3 per cent or more so that kickbacks (at least $3-billion so far) could be paid to the Petrobras directors and shared with politicians and several political parties.

This was a tidy scheme until Mr. Dallagnol and his prosecutors turned the initial 15 or so cases over to Mr. Moro, a first-level federal judge sitting in Curitiba, capital of the southern state of Parana. By swiftly giving stiff jail sentences to the directors of Petrobras and the managers of the construction companies, Mr. Moro and the prosecutors were able to encourage many of the miscreants to turn state's evidence and disclose the identities of the numerous politicians who had been on the take. Last month, Odebrecht's head, earlier sentenced to 19 years in prison, promised to name names. About 60 per cent of the members of the Brazilian congress, the speaker of the lower house, and the president of the senate, have so far been implicated. So has Michel Temer, Brazil's current president, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, its beloved former president. Mr. Dallagnol said this month that the "number of powerful people caught up in it grows by the day."

This week, to cement the prosecution's case, the Brazilian Supreme Court, even absent one of its key judges who died in December in a small plane crash, approved plea-bargain agreements with 77 Odebrecht executives. That approval should lead swiftly to the arraignment of dozens of allegedly culpable politicians.

Prosecutors accuse Mr. da Silva of being the "maximum commander" of the Petrobras bribery scheme. They claim that Mr. da Silva masterminded the kickbacks and campaign donations that Odebrecht gave to participate in bidding for Petrobras contracts, and also obstructed investigations. More narrowly, Mr. da Silva is accused personally of illegally receiving from Odebrecht more than $1-million in improvements and expenses for a beachfront apartment.

Nowhere else in the corrupt world has a judicial apparatus been able on its own to attack the maw of graft so determinedly and, for now, successfully. Mr. Moro, very earnest and a judges' judge, and extolled by Mr. Dallagnol for his deep knowledge of the law, is determined to rid Brazil's cozy industrialists and politicians of their ability to continue corrupting the sizable nation.

But can their crusade succeed? Congress will fight back. But Mr. Moro, 44, charismatic and celebrated by ordinary Brazilians, has the crowds behind him. Millions have taken to the streets to support what he and Mr. Dallagnol are doing. Thanks to both Mr. Moro and Mr. Dallagnol, Brazilians understand that they might finally rid their nation of its corrupt ways.

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