Billion dollar lawsuit against Vale in London has help inside Brazil’s Presidential Palace
While the government negotiates with Vale and BHP over the value of the compensation related to the Mariana disaster, the president of the Public Ethics Commission of the Presidency of the Republic, Manoel Caetano Ferreira Filho, who is on Pogust Goodhead’s payroll, has helped the class action law firm ensure the verdict is delivered by the courts in London, which can yield eye-watering judgments.
Ferreira Filho, who defended Lula in Lava Jato and visited him in prison, should see a conflict of interest in his conduct.
Ferreira Filho pushed for UK trial
Ferreira Filho even declared that the courts of the United Kingdom would be more appropriate than Brazilians to solve the environmental complaint.
Thomas Goodhead, CEO of the PG, has open doors: accompanied by Ferreira Filho, he even visited the office of the Attorney General of the Republic.
Ferreira Filho confesses that he works for British Pogust Goodhead
The president of the Ethics Committee of the Presidency of the Republic responded to the questions of the column only two hours after the closure. In his clarifications, the lawyer who participated in Lula’s defense in Lava Jato confesses that, in fact, he works for the British law firm PG, which tries to make Vale’s billion-dollar compensation in the United Kingdom.
“I am part of the staff of the firm Pogust Goodhaed, advising him on the Brazilian Material Law, applicable to the process before the English Justice, in which the victims of the disaster of Mariana claim compensation for the damages they suffered.”
– Manoel Caetano Ferreira Filho
Read the full of Ferreira Filho’s allegations: “In response to your request made to the Public Ethics Committee, I read the following clarifications: 1. The members of the Public Ethics Committee shall occupy
HONORIFIC CARGO, WITHOUT REMUNERATION, which does not prevent them from continuing to exercise their respective professions of origin normally;
2. 2. The members of the Public Ethics Committee do not hold a position covered by specific legislation that requires prior consultation with the Commission itself for the regular exercise of their respective professions of origin, being prevented from acting in the processes in which there is interest of persons with whom they have professional relations;
3. It is therefore not the responsibility of the CEP to authorize or prevent its members from continuing to regularly carry out their professional activities;
4. 4. For such reasons, I, like the other members of the CEP, do not need to consult it in advance to continue exercising my profession normally, provided that it does not generate a situation that characterizes a conflict of interest;
5. . 5. “I am part of the staff of the firm Pogust Goodhaed, advising him on the Brazilian Material Law, applicable to the process before the English Justice, in which the victims of the disaster of Mariana claim compensation for the damages they suffered.”
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario do Poder. Original reporting by Claudio Humberto.