Workers Party's Campaign Strategist Describe Off-the-Books Transactions for Lula and Dilma

04/19/2017 - 12h37

The mastermind of presidential bids João Santana and his wife, Mônica Moura, declared in testimony to Juiz Sergio Moro on Tuesday (the 18th) that they received off-the-books funds from Odebrecht in the Presidential campaigns for Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Mônica Moura who is responsible for the couple's financial operations, didn't provide details regarding the total amount of off-the-book funds for either campaign.

According to her, around R$ 10 million (US$ 3,2 million) was deposited in an off-shore account during ex-president Dilma's campaign in 2011 as well as other amounts in cash.

Odebrecht, according to Moura, also made a payment of R$ 18 million (US$ 5,7 million) to the campaign of Marta Suplicy (Workers Party [PT] party at the time, today PMDB) for Mayor of São Paulo and to Gleisi Hoffmann (PT) for Mayor of Curitiba in 2008.

In the 2012 campaign, Santana e Moura said that they had received money from the construction company for the campaigns for Fernando Haddad (PT) for Mayor of São Paulo and Patrus Ananias (PT) for Mayor of Belo Hoizonte.

According to Moura, former minister Antônio Palocci was the one that negotiated for the PT regarding the off-the-books funds between 2006 and 2012. Afterwards, it was the party's former treasurer, João Vaccari Neto, who took over the role.

Their firm continued to receive off-the-books funds from Odebrecht for campaigns in other countries, according to the couple. One of these was for the former president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, in 2009.

The campaign, according to them, was conducted at Lula's request to try to guarantee that a candidate from the left would win in the country's election and the PT guaranteed that the costs would be paid by Odebrecht.

They also said that the construction company provided off-the-books funds to the campaign of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 2012.

Vaccari's lawyer declared that "they are dealing in information that isn't true". Gleisi Hoffmann said that all of the amounts received by her were properly detailed and accounted for in documentation presented.

Patrus Ananias declared that "fund raising and campaign financing in 2012 was entirely under the responsibility of the party structure". When reached by Folha, ex-president Dilma declared that she had no comment. Others mentioned by Mônica Moura failed to respond for this report.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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