Judge drove billionaire's seized Porsche to 'save it'

The Brazilian judge presiding over criminal proceedings against former billionaire entrepreneur Eike Batista, once Brazil's richest man, has been spotted driving a Porsche belonging to the fallen tycoon that had been seized by the court.

Flavio Roberto de Souza, who is overseeing Batista's trial for insider trading, was seen driving the white Porsche Cayenne by reporters for the newspaper O Estado de S Paulo after a tip-off from Batista's lawyer.

The car was one of a number of luxury vehicles confiscated by the police earlier this month in terms of a court order.

Local media said investigators had seized the cars because of suspicions that Batista had been selling or donating assets that were frozen as part of the insider trading case.

Asked why he was driving the Porsche, Souza told local business daily Valor Economico: "The federal police had no safe place for the car and it was exposed to sun, rain and possible damage. I took it to a covered parking space."

The cars were to have been auctioned but Batista's lawyer secured an injunction halting the sale.

Batista lost almost everything as his EBX conglomerate fell apart and his flagship oil firm OGX filed for Latin America's largest bankruptcy in 2013.

Prosecutors accuse him of selling OGX stock worth about R943-million based on privileged information that its offshore oil fields would miss production forecasts.