Measurement of damage from corruption in Brazil

Jonatas Dutra Sallaberry, Liz Spinello Quaesner, Mayla Cristina Costa and Leonardo Flach

Journal of Financial Crime, 2020, vol. 27, issue 4, 1239-1239

Abstract: Purpose - This study aims to analyse and measure the damage caused by acts of corruption in the largest investigation in Brazil, known as the “Lava Jato” operation. Design/methodology/approach - For the analysis of financial flows, documentary research was carried into denunciation and judicial decisions. Based on the “Follow the Money” methodology, it was possible to follow the inverse trail of money, from the indications of benefits to public agents, financial operators and fake companies up to the deviation of refinery construction. Findings - The analysis allowed the identification of damages from acts of corruption that reached 17.8% of the value of the oil refineries built, while the benefit of the corrupting agents was 13.7% of the damage caused. The analysis shows several other characteristics of the movements and the identification strategy of financial crimes. Research limitations/implications - Research enabled the development of a strategy to identify and measure the flow of corruption and money laundering. Practical implications - Based on the identified financial parameters, it will be possible to estimate the damage caused by a corrupt act for a certain benefit. Originality/value - The research identified financial parameters of damages and benefits from acts of corruption in the largest fraud that occurred in the country, which was replicated inmodus operandiin several works and countries in Latin America.

Keywords: Corruption; Money laundering; Follow the money; Accounting fraud; Bribe; Car wash (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jfcpps:jfc-04-2020-0057

DOI: 10.1108/JFC-04-2020-0057

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Financial Crime is currently edited by Dr Li Hong Xing and Prof Barry Rider

More articles in Journal of Financial Crime from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().