Brazil’s Supreme Court on Friday authorized the investigation of dozens of Brazilian politicians, including the presidents of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies over the multibillion-dollar graft case roiling state oil giant Petrobras.
Those facing investigation include 22 serving congressmen and 12 senators, among them a former president, after a move marking a new front in a snowballing scandal that has caused political and social uproar, threatening to tear apart Brazil’s ruling coalition.
Not under investigation is Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was Petrobras’ board chairwoman during much of the decade-long period when politicians allegedly benefited from huge kickbacks via inflated contracts struck between the oil firm and dozens of companies.
Photo: AFP
“Launching investigations was considered viable, as there are indications of illegality,” a court statement read, quoting a decision by Supreme Court Presiding Minister Teori Zavascki.
About three dozen politicians were named, many of them allies of the leftist president’s ruling coalition, following a demand by Brazilian Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot that the court lift their political immunity.
The list includes former Brazilian president Fernando Collor, now a senator.
A different corruption scandal saw Collor forced from power in 1992 — he resigned before he could be impeached.
Those named are variously accused of crimes relating to involvement in a scheme facilitating corruption and money laundering that saw an estimated US$3.8 billion skimmed off inflated contracts over a decade.
According to Janot, the scheme operated under clear “rules... along similar lines to a soccer league,” whereby inflated contracts were shared out principally among major construction firms and those who benefited received from 1 to 3 percent of the value.
Rousseff’s Workers’ Party issued a prompt response to the allegations, while declaring its “wholesale” support for an investigation “without favor or partiality.”
A party statement added that, while the party “is proud to have led governments which implacably fought against corruption,” it would support statutory punishment for any politician found guilty.
The party added that any money that might have gone to politicians were “donations” that were “legal and duly declared” to the authorities.
Rousseff won re-election just four months ago, her top priority the revitalization of a flailing economy hamstrung by four straight years of low growth and rising inflation.
The naming of Brazilian Congress President Renan Calheiros and Chamber of Deputies President Eduardo Cunha could have severe repercussions for the centrist PMDB party and the ruling coalition.
The PMDB is the strongest political group in the Senate and the second-biggest in the lower chamber after the Workers’ Party, making its congressional support critical for Rousseff.
Calheiros and Cunha have denied any wrongdoing, while Rousseff has denied all knowledge of the alleged kickback scheme, backing the investigation.
Cunha said that his situation was “transparent — nothing to fear.”
Calheiros said that his “relations with the public authorities never went beyond institutional limits.”
He added that he would submit “all information the judges want” in a case set to last up to four years.
The scandal, dubbed Operation Car Wash, broke a year ago when a former Petrobras director turned whistle-blower in a bid to strike a plea bargain.
His accusations, which have slowly filtered through media outlets, suggest that the kickback cash was destined for private accounts or to finance political parties.
Among those questioned, but later released, was Workers’ Party Treasurer Joao Vaccari Neto.
The Progressive Party, another Rousseff ally that has 32 members facing investigation, did not immediately react to the latest developments.
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
RSS