Workers' Party Senator Gleisi Hoffmann and Husband Indicted in Petrobras Scandal

09/28/2016 - 15h22

In the second session of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) on Tuesday (27) the Court accepted the accusation against Workers' Party (PT) Senator Gleisi Hoffmann and her husband, former minister Paulo Gernardo. With this action, the couple have become defendants in a criminal case before the court.

Five court member ministers voted in favor of accepting the accusation: Ricardo Lewandowski, Teori Zavascki, Dias Toffoli, Gilmar Mendes and Celso de Mello.

The accusation is that Hoffmann's campaign for the Senate, in 2010, received R$ 1 million (US$ 308 thousand) from the corruption scheme at Petrobras. The transfers, according to the investigation, were solicited from Paulo Bernardo.

They were first accused by the PGR (Federal Prosecutor's Office) in May of this year.

For Teori Zavascki, the couple benefited from what he classified as "systematic corruption" at Petrobras.

"In the context of systematic corruption at Petrobras, the charge states that Paulo Bernardo, in function of his position as Planning Minister, used that privileged position in the Federal Government and requested R$ 1 million [US$ 308 thousand] from Paulo Roberto Costa to finance his wife, Gleisi Hoffmann's, campaign", he declared as he voted.

Hoffmann is one of the most important PT leaders in the Senate. She was Presidential Chief of Staff in ex-president Dilma Rousseff's government from June 2011, when Antonio Palocci left the position, until February 2014. She left the post to run for Governor of Paraná and finished in 3rd place in the election.

After watching the proceedings, Hoffmann said that she had felt "sadness" upon receiving the accusation, but added that for the first time since the beginning of the investigation she had been given the "benefit of the doubt".

Denying having received any illicit amounts whatsoever, Hoffmann criticized the fact that, according to her, the accusation was based solely on plea-bargaining.

From the Senator's point-of-view, and she once again repeated that the Lava Jato Operation has become "politicized", the political moment that the country is passing through contributed to the acceptance of the accusation against her and her husband.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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