BRASILIA – Brazil’s Car Wash anti-corruption unit has officially shut down after seven years, the end of an era for a team of prosecutors that helped send dozens of Latin American political and business leaders to jail including several former presidents.
The task force stemmed from a routine money-laundering investigation into a car wash in Brasilia, ceased to exist on Monday, although its dissolution was not announced until Wednesday by the federal prosecutors’ office.
Some of its prosecutors will be transferred to the organized crime unit of the Ministério Público Federal, the agency said.
The Car Wash squad began its work in 2014, focusing on contracting graft at state-run oil company Petrobras, although its scope quickly expanded. Former presidents and major companies throughout Latin America – thought for years to be untouchable – were implicated in sprawling corruption schemes uncovered by the investigators. (Reuters)
