Plea-Bargainer Testimony Fingers Interim President and 24 other Politicians in Bribery Schemes

06/16/2016 - 10h27

Sérgio Machado, President of state-owned Transperto for 11 years, has revealed in his plea-bargain agreement in the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation that he passed along at least R$ 115 million (US$ 32 million) in bribes to 25 politicians from seven parties - the PT, PSDB, PP, DEM, PCdoB and PV, in addition to the PMDB itself, the guarantor of his nomination.

According to Machado, PMDB members received R$ 100 million (US$ 28 million). He said that he raised, at the request of a politician, resources from companies contracted by the logistics & transportation subsidiary of Petrobras. The investigators declared that the origin is implicitly illicit

Interim President, Michel Temer (PMDB) is accused of having negotiated a bribe of R$ 1,5 million (US$ 420,000) for Gabriel Chalita's (PMDB at the time) 2012 campaign for Mayor of São Paulo, through an official donation from the Queiroz Galvão construction company. Temer says he respects legal limits for campaign funding.

An acting President can't be investigated for actions outside of his current mandate. Chalita denies knowing Sérgio Machado. The company hasn't commented.

The list of politicians includes 5 PT members and 2 of Temer's Ministers (Sarney Filho & Henrique Eduardo Alves), in addition to six Senators from the PMDB and one from the DEM (José Agripino Maia) and another from the PSDB (Aécio Neves).

The President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros (AL), was given monthly stipends of R$ 300,000 (US$ 84,000), according to Sérgio Machado.

He testified further that around R$ 25 million (in current values, US$ 7 million) were passed along to 50 congressmen in the 1998 elections in exchange for their support for Aécio Neves's internal campaign for President of the Congress. Aécio, PSDB leader, says the accusations are false.

When asked to comment, Renan Calheiros, Agripino Maia, Sarney Filho & Henrique Eduardo Alves insist that all of the donations that they received had legal origins.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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