Rousseff's Defense Involves Temer in Its Case Before the Superior Electoral Court

11/09/2016 - 10h57

Ex-President Dilma Rousseff's (PT) defense team annexed to the case against her slate at the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) documents that reveal that R$ 1 million (US$ 320 thousand) that construction company Andrade Guitierrez gave to her campaign for re-election in 2014 went through the account of then Vice Presidential candidate Michel Temer (PMDB).

This could weaken the assertion defended by Temer, who is currently President, that his campaign fund-raising was separate from Rousseff's.

The former president of the construction company, Otávio Azevedo, declared in September that he had transferred this amount to the PT's national board. He also said that the board made a transfer in July to Dilma's campaign.

The amount was, according to Azevedo, part of bribes related to contracts that Andrade Gutierrez had with the federal government.

Rousseff's defense team verified the summary of accounts presented by the PT and confirmed that in July an amount of R$ 1 million had entered for the campaign.

However, the CNPJ (tax identification number for companies) of the donating entity was the national directory of the PMDB Party, and not of the PT. A receipt reveals that the original source of the money was Andrade Gutierrez.

The case, which is sponsored and run by the PSDB Party against Dilma's slate, is investigating alleged abuses of economic and political power, in addition to evidence that money diverted from Petrobras helped to fund the PT leader's re-election campaign.

An aide to Temer said that Azevedo confirmed that he had donated R$ 1 million to Temer's campaign and that the funds did not originate from bribes.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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