Brazil’s president accused of bribery
BRAZIL - Brazil’s leadership lurched into another bribery scandal Wednesday, as one of the country’s biggest newspapers accused President Michel Temer of paying a former senate colleague hush money.
Temer’s office released a statement denying that he had authorized any bribes to be paid to imprisoned former house speaker Eduardo Cunha in exchange for his silence regarding a long-running corruption investigation. The prominent daily newspaper O Globo reported earlier in the day that a meat producer had recorded the President giving the go-ahead to bribe Cunha to “keep quiet” while he was in jail. According to the report, the information was revealed when the owners of the meat and chicken conglomerate JBS testified before the Supreme Court behind closed doors as part of a massive corruption investigation, dubbed “Operation Car Wash,” which implicates former and current politicians. The corruption probe has led to the imprisonment of some of Brazil’s most prominent politicians and business owners. More than 80 people have been charged with bribery and money laundering during Operation Car Wash. Former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached last year after the Senate found her guilty of breaking budgetary laws amid the swirling corruption investigation though she herself was not accused of corruption. Temer was Rousseff’s former vice president and has been serving as interim President since her suspension in May 2016.
The wide-ranging corruption investigation began three years ago with the arrest of an executive at Petrobras, Brazil’s government-run oil company. Petrobras and Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction firm, played leading roles in the bribery ring. The scandal is a central reason why Brazil is in its worst recession in history. In addition to implicating Temer in the exchange with Cunha, Joesley Batista, the owner of JBS, reportedly testified that he had paid Cunha R$5 million since his imprisonment as part of an ongoing financial agreement, and still owed him R$20 million, in an agreement made after the politician exempted the poultry industry from certain taxes. (CNN.COM)