Esquemas escandalosos: as empresas na Operação Lava Jato

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of the legal-communication strategy of the Lava Jato operation, focusing on the presence of companies in the corruption scandal. By investigating the role played by the private agent, we seek to understand the implication of these actors, who were initially central to the task force, gaining legitimacy, strength and support from the mainstream media, advancing the anti-corruption agenda with public opinion. The judicial-punitive strategy of investigating executives' arrests to encourage winning allegations contributed to fueling the press and broadening media coverage. At the same time, it contributed to creating an almost unique narrative about the operation that only began to be broken with the revelations of Vaza Jato. Through bibliographical research and in-depth interviews, we seek to understand how economic agents revealed their relationship networks with political power and, above all, the responses given to the reputational crisis. In this sense, we can see the rise of the discourse of integrity and compliance practices in the corporate agenda. The theoretical basis of this research dialogues with the concepts of media scandal as a pseudo-event that is organized in the public sphere.