Apr 15, 2017

Rio de Janeiro, 4/15/2017 – The Board of Directors of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) decided today to establish a Commission of Internal Investigation to ascertain the facts laid out in the Petitions of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) 6738/2017 and 6740/2017, whose rapporteur is Minister Edson Fachin.

The reports that BNDES has taken notice of thus far refer to the alleged participation of Luiz Eduardo Melin de Carvalho e Silva and Álvaro Luiz Vereda Oliveira in the approval process, by BNDES, of the funding to the exporting of engineering goods and services. Melin was BNDES’s International and Foreign Trade Manager from January 2003 to December 2004 and from April 2011 to November 2014. Vereda was adviser to the President of BNDES from October 2005 to May 2006.

BNDES emphasizes that none of the two persons mentioned is or was an employee of the Bank, holding positions of trust in the institution only.

The Commission of Investigation will monitor the procedure foreseen in the investigation standard approved by BNDES’s Board of Directors in their Regular Meeting last Wednesday, 4/12/2017.

BNDES will seek support from the Federal Public Ministry and from the Federal Police and will cooperate in such a way that the investigation may be completed with brevity and information may be exchanged between the entities so that possible unlawful administrative and criminal acts may be jointly assessed.

It is worth noting that in October 2016, BNDES established new criteria for granting funding to the exporting of engineering services, based on audits of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU). On that same occasion the Bank also established criteria for the eventual resumption of previously contracted funding that had its disbursements suspended since May 2016, including the compliance term for the importer (country that contracts the service) and exporter (Brazilian enterprise), aligned to the leniency agreements signed by the enterprises.

Recently, the Bank has also started to include compliance clauses in all contracts that have either the Brazilian or foreign public sector , as one of its parties.

BNDES’s Board of Directors, on its behalf and on behalf of the Bank’s employees, reaffirms the commitment to defend the institution and to clarify the facts. BNDES will strive to adopt all appropriate measures for the protection of the institution today and in the future, in such a way that it cannot be used for the practice of illicit acts. The complete investigation of the facts is an important step in that direction.