Federal Judge Lifts Gag Order of Lawsuit Involving Lula's Former Minister

Antonio Palocci's plea deal includes accounts of slush funds for Dilma Rousseff's 2010 and 2014 campaigns and reports of corruption at Petrobras

São Paulo and Curitiba

On Monday (1st), with only six days to the general elections, federal judge Sergio Moro lifted the suppression order of part of Lula's former finance minister and chief of staff Antonio Palocci's plea deal.

The deal includes accounts of slush funds for Dilma Rousseff's 2010 and 2014 campaigns, containing up to four times the amount effectively declared to the authorities, as well as reports of corruption at Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company.
 

Antonio Palocci, former finance minister and presidential chief of staff in recent Workers Party (PT) governments. Portions of his plea deal were publicly released on Monday (1st) - REUTERS


According to Palocci, the 2010 campaign had cost R$ 600 million (US$ 75 million) against the R$ 153 million (US$ 38 million) effectively declared, while the 2014 effort had cost R$ 800 million (US$ 200 million) against R$ 350 million (US$ 87 million) declared to the electoral courts. The former minister, who has been in jail for the last two years, also mentions raising money through deals to push bills through and executive orders.

The plea deal repeats Palocci's previous statements and directly implicates Lula and Rousseff in a 2010 meeting where a bribe of R$ 40 million (US$ 20 million) was discussed.

For Lula's defense team, judge Moro's action only reinforced the "political dispositions of these lawsuits" related to Lula. The attorneys also said that Palocci was lying again, "without presenting one shred of evidence", in order to gain benefits for himself.


Translated by NATASHA MADOV

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