Brazilian state prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol describes himself on Twitter as a "Follower of Jesus" and a "prosecutor by vocation."
But he insists the huge corruption investigation he is helping lead at the age of 37 "is not a moral crusade."
"It is an island of justice and hope in a sea of impunity," he says.
Dallagnol is a senior member of a team probing the Petrobras scandal, shaking Brazilian politics to its foundations.
Along with judge Sergio Moro, he has been accused of overusing powers of preventive detention and plea deals.
Dallagnol says that without such methods -- and a lot of luck -- the investigation would fail.
An amateur surfer, he spoke to AFP in his office in the seaside city of Curitiba, the center of the probe.
- Investigation methods criticized -
The investigation, dubbed "Lava Jato" or "Car Wash," has made Dallagnol and his team stars in the eyes of many.
Their opponents criticize their methods: having suspects held in pre-trial detention and offering scores of them lighter sentences for testifying against others.
Dallagnol says it was "luck" that the judges selected to handle the case have been in favor of such methods.
It is one of many things he attributes to luck.
Dallagnol is one of a wave of Evangelical Christians to come to prominence over recent years in a mostly Catholic country.
"Lava Jato has made progress for two reasons: by using a new model for an investigation and also due to a series of random fortuitous factors," he says.
The Harvard law school graduate nearly skipped the case to begin with. When colleagues asked him three years ago to get involved, he replied that he had a holiday booked.
But they persuaded him and he ended up tugging the thread that led the case to unravel into a $2 billion bribery affair.
A routine inquiry into a minor suspect led investigators unexpectedly to a bigger one: former Petrobras executive Paulo Roberto Costa.
He became the first suspect to strike a plea deal, and opened the floodgates.
"He was the contact who revealed the Petrobras scheme," in which executives bribed officials in the state oil firm to win contracts, Dallagnol says.
- Thousands of crimes -
Lava Jato has already put hundreds of white-collar suspects behind bars.
Among them, scores of former executives from the disgraced construction firm Odebrecht have agreed plead deals.
Dallagnol says that will double the total number of suspects charged in the affair.
"We are investigating thousands of multimillion-dollar crimes committed by hundreds of people," he said.
The firm's former head Marcelo Odebrecht was reported last year to have given testimony implicating President Michel Temer.
A key judge involved in taking testimony from Odebrecht executives, Teori Zavascki, died in a plane crash last week. Police are investigating.
"Criminal cases do not change a country," Dallagnol admits.
"They can convict a few people and recover the embezzled money. But unless the structures that lead to corruption are changed, we won't get anywhere."
Brazilian state prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol describes himself on Twitter as a “Follower of Jesus” and a “prosecutor by vocation.”
But he insists the huge corruption investigation he is helping lead at the age of 37 “is not a moral crusade.”
“It is an island of justice and hope in a sea of impunity,” he says.
Dallagnol is a senior member of a team probing the Petrobras scandal, shaking Brazilian politics to its foundations.
Along with judge Sergio Moro, he has been accused of overusing powers of preventive detention and plea deals.
Dallagnol says that without such methods — and a lot of luck — the investigation would fail.
An amateur surfer, he spoke to AFP in his office in the seaside city of Curitiba, the center of the probe.
– Investigation methods criticized –
The investigation, dubbed “Lava Jato” or “Car Wash,” has made Dallagnol and his team stars in the eyes of many.
Their opponents criticize their methods: having suspects held in pre-trial detention and offering scores of them lighter sentences for testifying against others.
Dallagnol says it was “luck” that the judges selected to handle the case have been in favor of such methods.
It is one of many things he attributes to luck.
Dallagnol is one of a wave of Evangelical Christians to come to prominence over recent years in a mostly Catholic country.
“Lava Jato has made progress for two reasons: by using a new model for an investigation and also due to a series of random fortuitous factors,” he says.
The Harvard law school graduate nearly skipped the case to begin with. When colleagues asked him three years ago to get involved, he replied that he had a holiday booked.
But they persuaded him and he ended up tugging the thread that led the case to unravel into a $2 billion bribery affair.
A routine inquiry into a minor suspect led investigators unexpectedly to a bigger one: former Petrobras executive Paulo Roberto Costa.
He became the first suspect to strike a plea deal, and opened the floodgates.
“He was the contact who revealed the Petrobras scheme,” in which executives bribed officials in the state oil firm to win contracts, Dallagnol says.
– Thousands of crimes –
Lava Jato has already put hundreds of white-collar suspects behind bars.
Among them, scores of former executives from the disgraced construction firm Odebrecht have agreed plead deals.
Dallagnol says that will double the total number of suspects charged in the affair.
“We are investigating thousands of multimillion-dollar crimes committed by hundreds of people,” he said.
The firm’s former head Marcelo Odebrecht was reported last year to have given testimony implicating President Michel Temer.
A key judge involved in taking testimony from Odebrecht executives, Teori Zavascki, died in a plane crash last week. Police are investigating.
“Criminal cases do not change a country,” Dallagnol admits.
“They can convict a few people and recover the embezzled money. But unless the structures that lead to corruption are changed, we won’t get anywhere.”
