Alumni in Focus

Jorge Barbosa Pontes

Retired Federal Police Commissioner - ILEA Roswell Class of 2003

Jorge Barbosa Pontes, an alumnus of ILEA Roswell 2003, is currently a retired federal police commissioner, having served for over 30 years. In that time, he held the positions of field agent, chief of investigation, head of division, general coordinator, regional superintendent, director of Interpol, Brazilian Federal Police attaché in France and elected member of the executive committee of Interpol, representing the Americas.

Mr. Pontes stayed in touch with several fellow alumni who worked in the Brazilian Federal Police, and reflected positively on his time at ILEA Roswell. “I was very impressed with the way in which ILEA Roswell taught ethics. This subject was very influential in my career,” he notes.  “It is instrumental for a police officer who fights against huge and powerful systemic corruption schemes to understand ethics more widely as a base of all police work.”

Putting his experience and ILEA Roswell training to use, Mr. Pontes has recently coauthored a book with Marcio Adriano Anselmo, a colleague from the Brazilian Federal Police. Operation Car Wash – Brazil’s Institutionalized Crime, and the Inside Story of the Biggest Corruption Scandal in History has already proven to be a success in Brazil, and will be available in English in April 2022.

Describing their term “institutionalized crime,” Mr. Pontes notes that it is “a criminal structure established within state powers, manipulating from the inside out. This organizational modality of crime has tentacles in the three powers of the State, including the drafting of laws.” This corruption can be wide-reaching – after all, those in the government can have the formal power to appoint and dismiss leadership, approve budgets, and appoint attorneys general and judges.

Curious to learn more? Check out Jorge Barbosa Pontes and Marcio Adriano Anselmo’s book here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/operation-car-wash-9781350265639/