Prepare your mind for some next-level stupid: a judge in Brazil overseeing an extremely high-profile insider trading trial has been thrown off the case because he went joyriding in the defendant's seized Porsche Cayenne Turbo S.
Seriously. I... how... Man, I got nothing this time.
Bloomberg reports that Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza is accused of breaching the court's code of ethics after authorities discovered, in his Rio apartment parking lot, the white $157,000 Cayenne owned by defendant Eike Batista. Batista is currently on trial for insider trading, and Souza is the judge in the case.
Obviously, Souza missed the day in law school where they talked about why you're not supposed to use seized assets for your personal funtimes, AND the class about why you should cover your ass if you brazenly break the law.
Even in notoriously corrupt Brazil, this kind of thing isn't okay, authorities said:
"There is no interpretative breach that allows a judge to keep or request the usage of a defendant's property," Brazil's justice inspector general said in the statement. "It's clear from several interviews that the federal judge chose to ignore the courts ethics code."
Batista was once Brazil's richest man, but he lost most of his $34.5 billion fortune when his petroleum company OGX collapsed in 2013. He's since been accused of insider trading and had his assets seized — upon an order by Souza. (I guess he really wanted to drive that Cayenne.)
Batista's case has been assigned to a different court and Souza will be subject to an investigation, authorities said.
I hope it was worth it, judge. I doubt that it was. It's not like you were in a 918 Spyder or something.