Investigated political marketer João Santana arrives in Brazil
João Santana - Reprodução/TV Brasil
Political marketer João Santana and his wife, Mônica Moura, arrived in Brazil from the Dominican Republic today (Feb. 23). They landed at Guarulhos International Airport in São Paulo. From there, they headed to the Federal Police unit in Curitiba, Paraná.
The couple were ordered to temporary detention as part of stage 23 of Operation Car Wash, an investigation into João Santana's connections with Odebrecht construction company. Odebrecht is also targeted by the investigation, suspected of making offshore money transfers to Santana. Yesterday (Fev. 22), Federal Judge Sérgio Moro ordered the seizure of an apartment in São Paulo listed as Santana's and his wife's property. The property is believed to have been paid for with money from a secret account in Switzerland.
In another injunction against the suspects, Moro ordered the freezing of the personal bank accounts of João Santana, his wife, engineer Zwi Skornicki, an agent for Keppel FELS shipyard in Brazil, and Fernando Migliaccio, an executive at Odebrecht.
Santana decided to resign from his job as a campaign advisor for Danilo Medina, who is running for presidential re-election in the Dominican Republic. In a letter sent to the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) committee, Santana told them he was quitting the campaign to return to Brazil and present his defense against the Brazilian authorities' “unfounded allegations”. In his letter, Santana also said he woke up to the news that he had been implicated in the Operation Car Wash investigations: “Judging from the persecutory atmosphere I've seen in my country recently, I can't say I'm surprised, but this is still hard to believe,” he said.
He went on to write in his letter that he had offered cooperation with the Brazilian authorities since last week, to help clarify “any speculations.” He said he will provide any information required to “establish the true facts”.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Investigated political marketer João Santana arrives in Brazil
