Former Caixa treasurer in ES who diverted R$889,000 to bets will perform 780 hours of community service

The condition was accepted by Irineu Barth Júnior in an agreement with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), which prevented the former employee from being criminally prosecuted.

The case was being investigated as embezzlement, a crime which, in this case, consists of using one's position to embezzle money that one has access to because of one's position.

The non-criminal prosecution agreement was approved by the 1st Federal Criminal Court of Vitória on June 21, 2023. This Friday (13), the former employee's defense confirmed the judicial settlement and informed that he will still begin providing services imposed in the criminal sphere.

Investigated for embezzling R$889,560 from four ATMs at a branch in Praia do Canto, in Vitória, Irineu confessed the facts when signing the commitment.

The document provided that the entity where the service would be provided would still be defined. Barth Júnior also committed to informing the MPF of any change of address, telephone or email.

If all conditions are met, the Court must declare the possibility of criminal punishment for the facts covered by the agreement extinguished. If there is non-compliance, the commitment may be canceled and the MPF may file a complaint.

The MPF recorded in the statement that Barth Júnior presented documents to prove that he did not have the financial means to repair the loss. The reimbursement was outside the conditions of the criminal agreement.

Irineu Barth Júnior is the former treasurer of Caixa Econômica do Espírito Santo and admitted at a hearing that he used cashiers at the Praia do Canto branch, in Vitória, to pay bills and generate credits on betting platforms. The amount diverted exceeds R$880 thousand.

The case was detailed in a first-degree decision by the Federal Regional Court of the 2nd Region (TRF2), to which g1 had access. Among the sanctions imposed are the return of the embezzled amount and a civil fine of the same amount — the two obligations total R$1,779,120, without monetary adjustments.

According to the process, the embezzlement of money occurred between July 2020 and July 2021. At the time, Barth Júnior was the agency's treasurer and took care of the supply and control of the terminals.

The lack of money was discovered on July 28, 2021, during the professional's medical leave. The employee who replaced him counted the bills and compared the total with the balances recorded in the bank's system. There was more than R$221,000 missing from each of the four pieces of equipment. With the discovery of the hole, Barth Júnior was fired by Caixa.

Also according to the sentence, the former employee admitted at a hearing that he used money from the agency's cash register to pay invoices that generated credits on betting platforms, withdrawing the amounts. He also confessed to appropriating the amounts in the bank's internal investigation.