Brazil ruling party treasurer held in oil corruption probe
Arrest ups the pressure on President Rousseff, who is facing growing calls for her impeachment
The treasurer of Brazil’s ruling party was arrested on Wednesday for alleged money laundering and taking bribes from state oil giant Petrobras that were stuffed into backpacks, the latest blow to President Dilma Rousseff.
Police accused Joao Vaccari of being the Workers’ Party (PT) point man in a massive kickbacks scheme in which Petrobras executives colluded with construction companies to inflate contracts to the tune of $4 billion (Dh14 billion), passing some of the dirty cash to the PT and its allies. The arrest ups the pressure yet again on Rousseff, who is facing calls for her impeachment and approval ratings of just 13 per cent only four months into her second term.
Rousseff chaired the Petrobras board during much of the decade when the alleged corruption took place, though she has not been implicated in the scandal.
Vaccari, who denies any wrongdoing, was arrested in the financial capital Sao Paulo.
He was transferred to the southern city of Curitiba, where a judge is leading the probe into the Petrobras case.
Prosecutors said they requested his arrest “to stop a series of crimes and because of the gravity of the crimes in which he participated intensively, which involve millions of reals.”
They said in a statement they also wanted to prevent him from “exerting political influence to obstruct the investigation.”
Police questioned Vaccari’s wife, Giselda Rousie Lima, who is being investigated as an accomplice.