Eurojuris members are sometimes very busy during the Olympic Games. A few months back, we had met with Eric Alver, a lawyer from Norway, specialised in various aspects of Olympic games organisation and delivery.
This time, we headed west to meet Eduardo Boccuzzi, Founding Partner at Boccuzzi Advogados Associados, a Sao Paulo based medium size firm providing legal services in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
Eduardo has been a EJ member for decades and has always been praising the great opportunities our network provides to his business.
“We receive numerous cases and client referrals each year from my EJ colleagues. It’s an incredible advantage to be trusted and referred by members worldwide. Our firm counts 70% of multinational companies settling or doing business in Brazil. We provide nearly all services a law firm can offer to its clients (Tax & Corporate law, Litigation, Labour law) with only one exception : Environmental law. We collaborate with another “boutique size law firm” which provide excellence in this domain. We believe it is important to stick to your core skills and we like to work with firms sharing the same philosophy.”
Tell us about your involvement in the upcoming Olympic Games in Brazil ?
“Well, my involvement is everything but professional. I have been a long time member of a badminton club here in Sao Paulo. Our club is hosting the Chinese Olympic Team this Summer, they will be training on our premises throughout the games. Our club asked for a few volunteer members to facilitate both training and integration of the Chinese athletes during their stay. I immediately enrolled !”
What does it involve ?
“I took some Mandarin lesson in order to be able to establish basic communication with the athletes and trainers. I also took some Chinese etiquette lessons to avoid any obvious faux-pas. My role will be to ensure a smooth arrival of the athletes and help them find everything they need in order to train in the best conditions”.
Do you think the current political crisis in Brazil will have an impact on the Olympics roll-out ?
“The institutional and political crisis in Brazil has been in the headlines for a while as impeachment efforts against Mrs. Rousseff evolved Congress. Hopefully, we shall get rid of her for good by August, 2016. But it all started with the “Car Wash” police investigation, similar to the Italian Mani Pulite investigation during the 1990’s. A major corruption scheme in the state-run oil company “Petrobrás” was revealed in which infrastructure construction companies bribed senior Executives from Petrobrás to manipulate public biddings of infrastructure contracts with the company.
Several politicians were involved in the corruption scheme. As the investigation goes further, more and more politicians appear to be involved – the reach of Car Wash is so great that even the former leader of government in the Senate, Delcídio do Amaral, assured a plea bargain agreement with prosecutors, commenting on the involvement of Presidents Dilma and Lula in the scheme.
The scandal provoked a paralysis in the government and Congress as suddenly the standard politics turned into a sort of “every man for himself death match”. Instead of voting bills and analyzing relevant national matters, Congress is now focused on accusations between politicians and parties. Meanwhile the Executive Government forgot it has an economic crisis to address and decided to devote itself solely to fight for Mrs. Roussef’s seat in the impeachment confrontation.
Former President Lula participation in the “Car Wash” scheme started to emerge lately, striking the news as Judge Sergio Moro coerced him to give testimony before the Brazilian Federal Police. The PT party has sworn war against the Brazilian Federal Justice.
The impeachment motion is grounded on fiscal manoeuvers practiced by the government in 2014, which lead to Roussef’s Federal Budget Accounts being reproved by the Brazilian Audit Court. In summary, the government delayed relevant payments regarding social benefits to banks and public agencies in order to artificially improve federal accounts by minimizing expenditure, which is considered a crime against budgetary law. I can assure you: there is no coup against Dilma; she is being sacked due to her criminal behavior. Brazilians are just cleaning their backyard!”
What’s your gut feeling towards the future for your country ?
This situation is very sad for a country under development like Brazil, which managed to participate in the BRIC’s and achieve a good standing on investment grade. That said, the impeachment of President Roussef seems to be a reasonable move, not only for the crimes she committed, but also so the country can get back on its feet again.
Michel Temer, the interim President, although not the best option, is having the chance to start from scratch and compose an Executive structure which is able to get the country back on its tracks. It is what we hope for.
There is little doubt that there will be serious change in Brazil, one way or another”.
