Brazil President says ministers under probe may resign
BRASILIA: Brazilian President Michel Temer said on Monday some of his cabinet ministers are likely to resign after being placed under investigation in a massive corruption probe, as he seeks to draw a line under a scandal threatening his sweeping fiscal reforms.
Last week a Supreme Court justice opened investigations into eight ministers - nearly a third of Temer’s cabinet - after they were accused of wrongdoing by executives of engineering group Odebrecht SA in plea bargain testimonies.
The ministers under investigation include close advi ser s such as Temer’s chief of staff Eliseu Padilha, considered key to negotiations on a landmark pension reform to rein in government spending and runaway public debt.
Temer said in a radio interview that the corruption scandal is “embarrassing” and may lead some ministers to step down.
“It is very likely that some ministers will feel uncomfortable and believe that they cannot continue,” Temer said, adding that his administration government “will not stop.”
Temer has previously said he would suspend any ministers charged with corruption and dismiss those who are indicted in the country’s biggest- ever graft scandal, which has hung over his efforts to end Brazil’s worst recession in over a century.
The president himself was accused in testimony made public last week of presiding over a meeting in 2010 in which an Odebrecht executive was asked to arrange an illegal payment of 40 million to his political party.
Temer has temporary immunity from investigations regarding events before his mandate began in May 2016. He and his ministers have denied any wrongdoing.
Lawmakers who attended a meeting with Temer on Sunday said he was sticking with his plans to push the pension overhaul through Congress by July.
With a third of the Senate and dozens of representatives coming under investigation last week, however, some observers see Congress as increasingly sensitive to popular opinion ahead of their re- election campaigns next year.
A federal court in New York on Monday imposed a 2.6 billion fine on Brazil’s scandal-plagued construction giant Odebrecht, part of what US authorities describe as a one of the largestever corporate settlements for international bribery.
Odebrecht and the petrochemical affiliate Braskem had in December already agreed to pay a total of 3.5 billion to settle the case, in which the companies admitted to paying nearly 800 million in bribes to government officials and political parties to win business on three continents.
US District Judge Raymond Dearie in Brooklyn ordered Odebrecht to pay a total of 2.6 billion, with 93 million going to the United States, 116 million to Switzerland and the remainder to authorities in Brazil.
The December plea agreement had sought to impose a far steeper 4.5 billion but this amount was reduced because Odebrecht was not able to pay it. As part of the agreement, Braskem agreed to pay 957 million.
Bra zi l ia n inve s t igator s say Odebrecht was one of the ringleaders of a scheme to plunder billions of dollars from state oil company Petrobras. The scandal has rocked Brazil’s political and business establishment. — AFP