Reuters:
\nBrazil’s federal police on Monday sought corruption charges against former finance minister and presidential chief of staff Antonio Palocci and accuse him of running a bribery scheme that funneled money to the former-ruling Workers Party’s (PT).<\/p>\n
Police said in their investigation sent to federal prosecutors that Palocci conspired with construction firm Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] to pay 128 million reais ($41 million) from 2006 to 2013 to the party, politicians and other officials in return for winning bloated contracts from state-run oil company Petrobras.<\/p>\n
Police are also seeking corruption charges against former Odebrecht Chief Executive Officer Marcelo Odebrecht and powerful political strategist Joao Santana, the force behind the PT’s presidential campaigns.<\/p>\n
Odebrecht is already serving a 19-year sentence for a separate case in the Petrobras probe, while Santana faces other corruption charges in the investigation.<\/p>\n
Under Brazilian law, only prosecutors can file charges, a process that can typically takes a month or longer.<\/p>\n
Palocci’s lawyer Jose Batochio said in a statement that his client was innocent and that the police accusation amounted to “literary fiction.”<\/p>\n
Reuters was not immediately able to reach lawyers for Odebrecht. It was not clear if Sanata had an attorney.<\/p>\n
Nearly 200 executives and former politicians have been charged and 83 have already been found guilty in the Petrobras probe. Prosecutors are seeking 38 billion reais ($12 billion) in damages from companies and individuals involved.<\/p>\n
Brazil’s top prosecutor Rodrigo Janot is investigating 66 politicians – many sitting lawmakers – for participation in the scheme, a number that could grow significantly as more of those charged turn state’s witnesses.<\/p>\n
Palocci, a medical doctor by training, was former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s finance minister and a key player in the 2002 election campaign that put the PT leader in the presidential seat.<\/p>\n
He also served as chief of staff to Lula’s hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, ousted in an August impeachment trial that ended 13 years of PT rule.<\/p>\n
Palocci helped Lula change his image from leftist radical into a business friendly and socially progressive leader who finally secured election on his fourth bid.<\/p>\n
As finance minister from 2003, he continued the anti-inflation and pro-market policies of the previous centrist government, helping calm financial markets’ concerns about Lula’s presidency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reuters: Brazil’s federal police on Monday sought corruption charges against former finance minister and presidential chief of staff Antonio Palocci and accuse him of running a bribery scheme that funneled money to the former-ruling Workers Party’s (PT). Police said in their investigation sent to federal prosecutors that Palocci conspired with construction firm Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] to pay 128 million reais… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}