Former Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow Maria Paula Bertran, who was the Brazilian Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Democracy and Human Development at the Kellogg Institute in fall 2018, writes with several updates.
First, she recently published the book (written in Portuguese) Previsível, mas problemático: o papel dos EUA na Operação Lava Jato, por força da FCPA [Predictable, but concerning: The role of the US in the Car Wash Operation, due to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]. This volume describes the predictability of major anti-corruption actions by the US Department of Justice in countries with regional hegemony (such as Brazil), but the fragility of a major corruption trigger in a limited time frame and in a politically unstable environment, such as Latin America.
The book consolidates a research agenda on corruption and law, in part developed with former Kellogg PhD Fellow Luiz Vilaça, whom she met during her time at Notre Dame. Together with other authors, they co-wrote the preprint article "Court’s Neutrality or Bias: Political Affiliation Among the Defendants of the Car Wash Operation." The article has received more than 1,000 downloads and gave rise to a very long and interesting article from BBC (in Brazil) called "Lava Jato atingiu partidos de forma proporcional, mas PT foi foco de Moro, aponta estudo."
Finally, Bertran shares, "Household debt is part of an old and solid agenda for me, which I continue to take care of, now under a think tank, within USP itself. Its name is 'Acredito,' which in Portuguese means both the act of offering credit and the act of believing in the financial system and state regulation." The website for Acredito shares more about the work of the think tank, which has recently prepared a short documentary about predatory lending in Brazil, in Portuguese with subtitles in English.
Bertran holds a doctorate from and is associate professor with the Ribeirão Preto Law School at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.