Former Chief of Staff held as mastermind in Petrobras graft case
Former José Dirceu is held as the mastermind of the kickback scheme at Petrobras
Former Chief of Staff José Dirceu, who was arrested Monday (Aug. 3) at stage 17 of Operation Car Wash, is held by the Federal Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office as the mastermind of the kickback scheme at Petrobras. According to investigators, during his term as Chief of Staff of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration, Dirceu appointed Renato Duque as Services Director at the state-run oil company and began the contract overpricing scheme at the company.
“I think we've caught one of the big men who began the [kickback] scheme, let it happen while in office as minister [Chief of Staff] and even benefited from it,” said Federal Prosecutor Carlos Fernando Lima. According to him, Dirceu had been receiving illegal payments since that time.
“We want to show that he [Dirceu] and Fernando Moura [also held as one of the main leaders in the corruption scheme and also arrested today] were responsible for the [kickback] scheme at Petrobras since Lula was in office as president,” Lima explained. Asked whether the former president could be targeted by investigations, the prosecutor said he “does not rule out any possibility of investigating”.
According to the prosecutor, Dirceu's arrest was ordered because while he was already serving house arrest – as a convict in the cash-for-vote scandal known as mensalão, which broke in 2005 – he continued to engage in wrongdoing and receive illegal money. Moreover, the attorney went on, Dirceu's brother, who was also arrested today, solicited payments in several of the businesses implicated in the case.
Federal Police Chief Marco Antonio Ancelmo added that during the investigations, José Dirceu's JD consulting firm did not properly prove the provision of services for payments received from Petrobras contractors. “JD was actually a division of pixulecos [suspects' slang code for the kickback payments]. There's no evidence that the company did actually provide the services,” the police chief said.
José Dirceu's defense declined to comment until it has access to the documents that led to the arrest.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Former Chief of Staff held as mastermind in Petrobras graft case
