Businessman Claims Donation to Workers' Party Was Bribe Payment; Party Says Donation Was Legal

12/04/2014 - 08h50

Businessman Augusto Ribeiro de Mendonça Neto has said to prosecutors and policemen in charge of operation Lava Jato that he was told to use three different routes for accepting bribes in exchange for contracts at Petrobras.

One of them was via "official donations to the Workers' Party (PT)", the current president's party, Dilma Rousseff.

Mendonça Neto and another executive from the Toyo Setal group, Julio Camargo, have said they paid US$ 59.3 million for bribes in contracts.

Around US$ 1.5 million were donated to the Workers' Party and was paid under the guidance of Renato Duque, former director of Services at the company, according to Mendonça Neto.

Both stepped forward with claims after they signed a whistleblower deal. Duque, who denies receiving a bribe, was arrested on November 14th and freed on Wednesday (3).

The amount paid in "commission" to him was based on 1.3% of the value of each contract, according to the businessman.

It is the first time that a suspect in this operation makes a connection between bribes and legal donations to a political party.

The summary of testimonies was released by federal judge Sergio Moro after the lawyers of the charged contractors requested access to the content.

Mendonça Neto said he made donations to the Workers Party through three companies that were under his control.

Folha has found that these donations add up to US$ 1.4 million and were made directly to the Workers' Party national board between 2008 and 2011.

Out of this amount, US$ 820,000 was transferred on the eve of the 2010 elections. A further US$ 23,431 was destined to the Workers' Party during the election campaign.

Before making any donations, Mendonça Neto said he had met with the Workers' Party treasurer, João Vaccari, to say that he "would like to make contributions".

He said he did not tell Vaccari that Duque had asked for donations.

The Workers' Party has said in a press release that it only receives legal donations.

Duque's role was to invite companies that had been named by a contractors "club" to take part in leases at Petrobras.

The list was compiled at the end of the 1990s and was reinforced in 2004.

The aim of the "club" was to "create a spreadsheet with amounts so that the companies could choose" which jobs and contracts were the most appealing for them.

The other two ways for taking bribes encompassed money being handed in installments to envoys from the Services department of Petrobras as well as remittances sent to foreign accounts under Duque and Pedro Barusco's control, a former engineering manager at Petrobras, who also signed a whistleblower agreement.

Mendonça Neto said the bribe money came from his companies in fake invoices.

Another whistleblower, Julio Camargo, said he paid US$40 million to lobbyist Fernando Soares for playing the role of middle man during the sale of radars to Petrobras.

Soares' defense denies any accusations.

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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