and there's no turning back. you understand? >> kevin costner: yes, i do. >> cooper: you've watched "the untouchables." >> judge moro: yeah, it's a great movie. >> cooper: like elliott ness in "the untouchables," judge moro has become something of a folk hero. brazilians have had to put up with corruption for decades, and when judge moro and prosecutors began bringing the extent of the corruption to light, people poured into the streets to show their support, many wearing judge moro shirts and masks. the investigation became so popular, there's a bumper sticker that says, "i support lava jato," which means car wash in portuguese. the fight against corruption has often been a losing battle in brazil. judge moro says one reason operation car wash has been successful is that it's used u.s.-style plea bargaining to get some defendants to cooperate. judge moro and the prosecutors have also been willing to use controversial tactics to fight financial crime. when former petrobras...

how cottonelle® do you feel? >> cooper: imagine if the watergate investigation had led not only to the downfall of president nixon, but also to allegations against his successor, plus the speaker of the house, the leader of the senate, a third of the cabinet, and more than 90 members of congress. that gives you some idea of what's happening in brazil right now. the country's stock market plunged this past week after a report that president michel temer had been caught on tape approving illegal pay-offs, a potentially impeachable offense. brazil's last president, dilma rousseff, was impeached. the country is suffering through one of its worst recessions in history, and a crisis of leadership caused in large part by a massive corruption investigation. it's known as operation car wash. it's one of the largest bribery cases ever investigated, and it's being led by a small group of idealistic young brazilian prosecutors and a crusading judge. in curitiba, a city far from the ruling elites...

captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> brazil's president and other leading politicians have been implicated in a massive government corruption investigation involving billionses of dollars in bribes. the judge in charge says only hollywood could have imagined such an outrageous story. >> it was like that movie, the untouchables. >> you are walking too a world of trouble. and there's no turning back, you understand? >> yes, i do. >> you've watched "the