Former Temer Aide Rocha Loures Named as Defendant in Corruption Probe

12/12/2017 - 11h21

On Monday (the 11th) Judge Jaime Travassos Sarinho, from the 10th Federal Court in Brasília, admitted the charge of accepting a bribe against form aide to President Michel Temer, Rodrigo Rocha Loures (PMDB-PR party).

Rocha Loures is now a defendant in the case in which he is charged with receiving a suitcase with a R$ 500,000 (US$ 151,500) bribe from meatpacking giant JBS, whose intended final recipient was the President.

The charge was originally issued by the Prosecutor General's Office against both Temer and the former aide, but the lower house of Congress blocked any further action against the President, which can only resume again after he leaves office.

With this decision the Federal Supreme Court (STF) referred the case back to the lower court which is hearing a penal case against Rocha Loures.

In April, Rocha Loures was filmed by the Federal Police (PF) during a sting operation leaving a pizza restaurant in São Paulo and running away with the suitcase. The money was delivered and handed over to Rocha Loures by Ricardo Saud, a JBS executive.

One of the company's partners, Joesley Batista, and many other executives had reached plea-bargain agreements with the Prosecutor General's Office to testify regarding the alleged corruption scheme involving the former aide and the President.

Former Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot sustained the accusation that the President used the aide as an intermediary for receiving illicit favors. The R$ 500,000 was a down-payment on a larger, R$ 38 million (US$ 11.52 million) bribe which was to have been paid over a nine-month period.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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	Reprodução
	Rocha Loures was filmed by the Federal Police leaving a pizza restaurant in São Paulo with the suitcase